BREAKING NEWS: Money for school pays for Lottery boss’s golf estate home in Pecanwood

HARTBEESPOORT – Millions of rands in Lottery money intended to build a school in Limpopo were spent on a house for the Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), Thabang Mampane. The money for the house, in an upmarket golf estate close to Hartbeespoort Dam in North West Province, was channelled through Upbrand Properties, a private company closely linked to the NLC’s Chief Operating Officer Phillemon Letwaba and his family.

The R3.6-million house in Pecanwood Estate is registered in the name of the Mojakgomo Family Trust. Mampane and her husband, Solomon, are both trustees of the trust, according to official records. The couple and their two adult children are all beneficiaries of the trust. The Mojakgomo Family Trust was established on 15 August 2016.

On 29 August 2016, a non-profit organisation, Simba Community Development Foundation, received more than R25-million — the first tranche of a R28.3-million grant — to rebuild Vhafamadi school, which had been gutted by fire during protests the previous year. On the same day, Simba paid R4-million to Upbrand Properties. Before the deposit by the NLC, Simba had a balance of only R225.73 in its bank account.

At the time, Johannes Letwaba, the brother of Phillemon Letwaba, then the chief financial officer of the NLC, was the sole director of Upbrand Properties. Before the payment from Simba, Upbrand had a balance of R100,201 in its bank account. As soon as the money landed, Upbrand proceeded to make numerous payments, including R100,000 for the roof slab for Letwaba’s home in the village of Marapyane in Mpumalanga.

By 12 September the balance in the account had dropped to R3,514,821 – until it was topped up by a R500,000 deposit from Ironbridge Travelling Agency that same day. Letwaba’s wife, Rebotile Malomane is now a director of Ironbridge. Letwaba’s cousin was the sole director at the time. Ironbridge had earlier received R2-million from Simba Community Development Foundation on 29 August 2016.

The next day, three separate payments – R68,600, R20,000 and R24,240 – came into Upbrand from Shandukani Holdings, which did some of the construction work at the school. Shandukani’s owner, Mashudu Shandukani, said: “2016 is the year we were building Vhafamadi secondary school. Upbrand properties were the nominated civil and earthworks contractor. We paid them for the work done.”

With the account topped up, Upbrand then paid R3.6-million to Jacobs Robbertse Attorneys, the lawyers acting in the sale of the house to Mampane. The purchase price was paid in full and no mortgage bond was registered over the property. Upbrand also made an additional payment of R269,848 to cover transfer and legal costs. The house was registered in the name of the trust on 1 December 2016. The payments from Simba to Upbrand, and then to Jacobs Robbertse, are reflected in Simba and Upbrand bank statements, which GroundUp has seen.

Simba is headed up by Azwindini Simba, a boxing promoter with no experience in construction. The company was dormant at the time it received the grant and was not compliant with statutory Department of Social Development (DSD) requirements, according to the department’s records. Simba supplied financial statements with its application to the NLC, but according to a well-informed source, it submitted an affidavit to the DSD claiming no financial activity during the financial year when the grant was awarded.

The financial statements included in the NLC application are believed to be fraudulent, according to the same source. The grant of R28.3-million to Simba to rebuild Vhufamadi was recommended to the NLC’s board by Mampane and the chairperson of the Commission’s Charities distributing agency.

NLC spokesperson Ndivhuho Mafela said in an emailed response to GroundUp’s questions, “The issues and transactions referred to in the inquiry are currently being canvassed through an investigation the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) is conducting on the affairs of the National Lotteries Commission.

“At this stage, the NLC will not be commenting on media inquiries that require details of grants awarded between 2014 and 2020 as well as related transactions. This is to allow the SIU to conduct this investigation without any hindrance or prejudice.”