Ahead of South Africa’s National Lottery Commission (NLC) announcing the country’s national lottery operator this month, the regulator itself has come under some criticism.
Local media reports state that the NLC has been told to improve its internal controls and operations by the office of the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), Tsakani Maluleke, after an extensive audit of the organisation.
According to South African media sources like Ground Up, among others, the audit specifically examined the 2023/24 financial year, and found a number of inconsistencies and areas for improvement.
The NLC has subsequently been told that it has failed to achieve certain performance targets, has mismanaged assets and failed to investigate irregular expenditure – chiefly related to grants.
As with most national lottery organisations, the NLC uses the revenue it makes from lottery tickets sales to provide grants to charity and good causes organisations. According to the Auditor-General, the NLC significantly underspent on delivery of these grants in 2023/24, and this does not appear to be the first time.
Corne Myburgh, the Business Unit Leader at the AGSA, was quoted by Ground Up as saying: “There have been a number of years where the NLC has received qualified opinions. For the last two years specifically, it was more in relation to the grants management.”
The revelations come as the NLC prepares to announce which company will operate the South African national lottery, an announcement which is apparently due later this month according to Parks Tau, the Minister for Trade, Industry and Competition.
This process has itself come under criticism, however, with some accusing Minister Tau of being too closely associated with Ithuba, which has held the licence since 2015 with the expiration date falling on 31 May 2025.
Ahead of the announcement and amidst this controversy, the lottery also stands accused of poorly managing assets and management of deadlines, largely related to the aforementioned topics of grants.
For example, the Auditor General found that the lottery had dropped one of its requirements to process grant applications within 150 days.
Myburgh and other senior officials from the AGSA announced these revelations during a hearing in parliament, a move which may escalate the political pressure South Africa’s lottery has been feeling for the past couple of months.