Repay R21m you looted

Samaritan Initiative 'hijacked on advice of Huma'.

- Tania Broughton

A former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) board member has been ordered to pay back R21 million in stolen grant funds which should have been used empower women and children in villages in the North West.

The Special Tribunal has ruled that a R16.5 million grant awarded by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) to Samaritan Initiative NPO, and a R4.7 million payment to Reagile NPC, are unlawful and invalid.

The organisations were linked to former NLC board member William Huma. The Special Tribunal found Huma caused the NLC to suffer damages of more than R21 million, citing egregious misconduct, negligence, dishonesty and violations of fiduciary duties.

Huma and the two organisations have been ordered to repay the money.

The Special Investigating Unit has already started a process to recover the full amount.

Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the judgment by tribunal Judge Margaret Victor was a landmark. It was the first judgment to set aside grant funding in the ongoing SIU investigations into corruption within the NLC.

The investigation started in 2020, based on allegations that NLC board members had diverted funds meant for good causes to entities they either controlled, or were linked to, and splurged on expensive properties and the like.

Kganyago said the SIU had filed 18 review applications concerning NLC grants seeking to set them aside. The total value was more than R320 million. More applications were expected to be filed, he said.