Former Lotteries executive loses court bid to access his pension
Judge upholds ruling in favour of Special Investigating Unit
A court bid by former National Lotteries Commission Marubini Ramatsekisa executive to get access to his pension fund has been refused. Graphic: Lisa Nelson
- The Special Tribunal has dismissed an application by Marubini Ramatsekisa, former National Lotteries Commission chief risk officer, to get access to his R1.7-million pension benefit.
- The initial order blocking access was granted in December 2023.
- The judge dismissed Ramatsekisa’s application to have the order rescinded.
- The Special Investigating Unit has fingered Ramatsekisa for his role in a R4-million grant to a shelf company, Zibsicraft, for a study to assist the development of the Khoisan language.
- R2.2-million of this, the SIU says, went to buy property for the Higher Grace Christ Redeemer Church, represented by former NLC Board chair Alfred Nevhutanda, and his wife.
Former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) chief risk officer Marubini Ramatsekisa has failed in his bid to overturn an order by the Special Tribunal blocking access to his pension funds.
The initial order was granted in December 2023 following allegations that Ramatsekisa orchestrated a scheme that resulted in the NLC losing about R4-million. He was suspended in September 2022 and subsequently resigned.
Ramatsekisa sought to rescind or vary this order, claiming it was sought “erroneously” and granted in his absence.
But Special Tribunal member Judge David Makhoba has dismissed his application and confirmed the interdict granted in favour of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
Judge Makhoba also ruled that Ramatsekisa must pay the costs of the application.
In his recent judgment, he said the SIU had obtained an order preserving the pension benefit, about R1.7-million, held by Liberty Life following an ex parte (without notice to the other side) application.
The basis for the interdict was that he had caused a loss of R4-million to the NLC.
It was alleged that Ramatsekisa prepared a proposal for “proactive funding” to conduct a study to assist the development of the KhoiSan language.
The funding — R4 million — was awarded to a company called Zibsicraft.
The SIU alleges that Ramatsekisa lied about contacting a stakeholder from the Department of Arts and Culture and he did not ensure that Zibsicraft’s application for grant funding went through the normal processes. He did not ensure that the people associated with that organisation had any links to the KhoiSan community or had ever done any work associated with the community.
Judge Makhoba said the SIU had also alleged that Ramatsekisa had used the same technique in awarding a R5.5-million grant for developing cricket in the Northern Cape.
These funding projects were not assessed, evaluated or adjudicated by a distributing agency, but by former NLC Chief Operations Officer Phillemon Letwaba and himself.
Letwaba signed the grant agreement on behalf of the NLC and Ramatsekisa signed as his witness.
Ramatesekisa submitted that the interdict should be reconsidered and set aside.
He said there was no evidence that he had colluded with the NLC to siphon money from it. He had only performed his administrative duties and the SIU had not made out a case that he was an “active and willing facilitator”.
Judge Makhoba said in these applications, the evidence contained in the SIU application was “considered from scratch”. The test was whether the SIU had made out a good case for the interdict it obtained in the ex parte application.
He said there were “shortcomings” in the manner in which Ramatesekisa had dealt with the funding of the Zibsicraft matter. Zibsicraft had no credible financial statements, normal processes were not followed, and the so-called “Khoisan community link” did not exist.
“The evidence before me indicates that the grant funds were not used for the intended purpose and shows a prima facie case that the applicant facilitated the unlawful grant awards. He failed to gainsay the factual allegations made against him,” Judge Makhoba said.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the initial interdict had been obtained “swiftly” after Ramatsekisa resigned and wrote to his pension fund administrator, giving notice that he intended to withdraw his pension benefit.
Dealing with the allegations, he said soon after the proactive funding was approved for the Khoisan project, three people acquired and became directors of Zibsicraft non-profit organisation, a dormant, shelf company. Ten days later, the company made an application for the funding.
“The application was accompanied by financial statements prepared for the periods ending 28 February 2018 and 28 February 2019. However, the non-profit organisation only opened a bank account on 19 March 2019, six days before it applied for funding,” Kganyago said.
“The SIU found that of the R4-million, R2.2-million allegedly went towards purchasing property for a church named the Higher Grace Christ Redeemer Church. The former NLC Board Chairperson, Alfred Nevhutanda, and his wife, Mrs Tshilidzi Rachel Nevhutanda, represented the church in the offer to purchase it.”
He said the SIU also intended to institute civil proceedings against Ramatsekisa to recover damages suffered by the NLC because of his conduct.
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