A GroundUp investigation into lottery corruption since 2018 has uncovered hundreds of millions of rands of dodgy grants and conspicuous expenditure.

These include luxury homes in gated security estates; a mansion with two house-size ‘guest cottages’ in a rural village; a home in an exclusive golf estate; and a R27m house on its own private two-hectare suburban property.

All but one of these are the homes of executive members of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), or former members of its board.

The other belongs to an attorney who controls several non-profit companies that have received millions in lottery grants.

The money to pay for all these houses, in part or in full, was diverted from lottery grants intended for good causes such as old age homes, drug rehabilitation centres and sports facilities.

Its probe has also revealed that despite hundreds of millions of rands being granted by the NLC in 2017 and 2018 to build six old age homes and four drug rehabilitation centres, most of them in far-flung rural areas, none are operational.

Complex networks of corruption, hijacked and dormant companies, or shelf companies, have been used to launder looted lottery money.

Full GroundUp report