Alfred Nevhutanda, the former chairperson of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), used lottery money to build a luxury holiday house in Limpopo, an investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found.

A decision was taken not to pursue the matter and seek a preservation order to freeze and dispose of it, because the house was sold in 2021 to an ‘innocent party'.

This was confirmed by a source with direct knowledge of the investigation, GroundUp notes.

Although the area at Nandoni Dam, near Thohoyandou in the Vhembe district, is largely undeveloped, there are several large, luxury holiday homes belonging to wealthy Limpopo businesspeople. 

Nevhutanda sold the house when an SIU investigation into lottery corruption was already underway. His scandal-ridden tenure as NLC chair ended in 2021, the same year that he sold the house.

Nevhutanda did not respond to GroundUp’s questions.

This was not the first time the SIU declined to seek a preservation order over an asset that Nevhutanda bought using lottery funds. 

GroundUp previously reported that he used millions in siphoned lottery funds to purchase a R6.3m Rolls-Royce Phantom, which he sold just three months later.

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) issued a preservation order for the vehicle in 2023 after the Asset Forfeiture Unit showed how almost R4.6m of the car’s purchase price was taken from NLC grants.

That preservation order was lifted a few months later because the NPA did not believe it would succeed if it pursued the forfeiture of the vehicle, which, like the Limpopo mansion, had been bought by an ‘innocent’ third party.

Full GroundUp report