The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is a government organization established in accordance with the Lotteries Amendment Act of 2013. Its mission is to make recommendations for the development of regulations for lotteries in South Africa. The NLC is responsible for overseeing the National Lottery , which is conducted by Ithuba, and more importantly, for funding good causes with lottery money.
However, there have been recent reports of potential corruption within the organization. This has been indicated by blank pages on the NLC's official website regarding funding for social development and a lack of response to requests to reveal the list of beneficiaries. The NLC's management claims that they cannot publish the list due to safety concerns for the beneficiaries, despite the fact that such information was previously available on the organization's website.
In response to these reports, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted a PAIA application to obtain the lists of NLC beneficiaries. This was prompted by reports from the news outlet GroundUP about alleged corruption in the payment of grants. In May 2020, GroundUP reported that they obtained leaked lists of payments that showed grants worth millions going to questionable and unfinished projects. Despite these allegations, NLC has yet to respond, though they did appoint an independent audit firm, Sekela Xabiso, to investigate in February 2020.
For more information visit the National Lotteries Comission website: nlcsa.org.za