6 July 2026
King Tembinkosi Bonakele has been appointed chairperson of the National Lottery Commission’s board. Photo from NLC website.
King Tembinkosi Bonakele, who is currently a board member of the National Lottery Commission (NLC), has been appointed chairperson of the Commission’s board.
He replaces Barney Pityana, who resigned in July last year with two years of his five-year term remaining. He agreed to remain in office until his successor was appointed.
In another appointment to the NLC, Mpho Mosing, who was one of three people shortlisted for the chairperson position, has been appointed to the Commission’s board.
Their appointments were announced in a Cabinet statement issued by the Presidency on Friday.
Bonakele and Mosing emerged from interviews as two of the top three of six candidates after the Parliament’s trade, industry and competition portfolio committee whittled down a list of 22.
Bonakele has been a lawyer for 18 years, nine of which he served as a Commissioner of the Competition Commission of South Africa. He also holds an MBA.
Mosing is a former chair of the audit and risk committee of the State Diamonds Trader and a former member of the Gauteng Liquor Board’s commission of inquiry into fraud and governance controls.
The shortlist of candidates was submitted to Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau in April, after it was approved by Parliament.
The 2022 interview process, through which Pityana was ultimately appointed chair, was an acrimonious stop-start process with long delays and regularly degenerated into a war of words between the ANC and the DA. It was also beset with litigation and acrimony as relations between then-Minister Ebrahim Patel and the NLC board soured.
But an MP involved in the latest deliberations described them as “collegial”.
