Lottery COO sues GroundUp for R600k

Summons alleges defamation

Photo of NLC sign

Phillemon Letwaba, the COO of the National Lotteries Commission, is suing GroundUp. Archive photo: Raymond Joseph

By GroundUp Staff

17 October 2019

Phillemon Letwaba, the Chief Operating Officer of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is suing GroundUp for R600,000. He is also demanding the removal of six articles GroundUp has published and that have been republished on various other news websites.

Letwaba’s summons, delivered on 10 October, names Raymond Joseph, Nathan Geffen and Community Media Trust as the respondents. Joseph is a freelance reporter who has written most of GroundUp’s Lottery-related stories. Geffen is GroundUp’s editor. Community Media Trust is a non-profit organisation in which GroundUp is based.

The firm representing Letwaba is Norton Rose Fullbright.

The six articles cited are:

The summons alleges that the articles are “wrongful and defamatory” of Letwaba. The summons describes its concerns with each article. For example, it states that the first “article was intended and was understood … to mean that the plaintiff [Letwaba] is dishonest in the following respects:”

Other Lottery-related litigation

In October the NLC lodged a complaint against a GroundUp story with the press ombudsman but subsequently withdrew it, stating in a letter to the ombudsman’s office on 11 December that it would “pursue remedies in the Court”. But GroundUp has since then not been sued by the NLC, only by its COO in what appears to be his personal capacity.

In April, Lesley Ramulhifo, an attorney who is the subject of some of the articles that Letwaba is demanding be removed, brought an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court against GroundUp, The Citizen and the Daily Dispatch, demanding articles mentioning him be removed. The court struck Ramulhifo’s application from the roll with costs.

GroundUp has instructed attorneys to defend the matter and does not intend to remove any of the above articles. We will continue reporting on the NLC.