Ex-Lotteries Commission boss's pension frozen by SIU

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has frozen the pension benefits of Philemon Letwaba, former COO of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC).

This after it obtained a preservation order from the Special Tribunal. The order interdicts the Liberty Group, as the pension administrator, from paying out R2.8m in benefits due to Letwaba, pending the final determination of an application to be brought by the SIU against him within 60 days.

The SIU approached the Special Tribunal on an urgent basis to freeze Letwaba's pension benefits after he resigned from the NLC pending a disciplinary hearing into his role in the distribution of NLC funds to non-profit organisations, said SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

“An investigation by the SIU [alleges Letwaba] used friends' and family businesses, and trusts, to receive money from NPOs [given to them by the NLC] for his benefit and that of his family,” he said.

In one of several NLC-funded projects investigated by the SIU, Kganyago said it was revealed that a Limpopo-based NPO received about R25m for the refurbishment of a torched school in Vuwani.

Twelve days after receiving the money, it allegedly transferred about R4m to one of these companies without evidence of work being done and in violation of the funding agreement.

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