Vivien Natasen, accused of participating in the state capture project and the looting of the National Lottery Commission, has business links with one of the companies shortlisted for the lucrative national lottery tender.
Natasen has links to Giya Games RF, which is in the running to win the eight-year, multibillion-rand contract to run the national lottery. The commission adjudicates the tender process. The revelations cast a shadow over the integrity of the process, potentially putting the ethical compass of the National Lottery Commission at stake.
Giya Games RF, according to company records, has chartered accountant Bongani Mahlori as a director. Company records show that Natasen and Mahlori were business partners in an entity called Giya Games Holdings. Mahlori said Natasen was not a director in Giya Games RF, an entity in the running for the national lottery licence.
“Giya Games Holdings is the consortium that was established and responsible for managing the bid preparation and for assisting in establishing the bid entity Giya Games RF (Pty) Ltd,” he said. Despite Mahlori’s assertion that Giya Games Holdings was set up to assist in establishing Giya Games, company records pour cold water on this.
Giya Games RF was registered in February 2023, while Giya Games Holdings was registered in October 2023, two months after the department of trade, industry & competition published a request for proposals for the fourth licence to operate the lottery. Mahlori said Natasen’s role in Giya Games RF’s bid was a consulting one.
“Vivien Natassen is a household name in the very close-knit SA lottery industry. I was introduced to him by an associate [and] we previously had some potential business interactions in the past [but] nothing materialised,” Mahlori said.
“I contacted him as one of the consultants based on the undisputed public knowledge that he worked in the SA lottery space in the past including the recent lottery licence in Botswana. He accepted to do consulting work on this project with me despite being invited by other bidders.
“I assembled the best consultants with knowledge and skills in the lottery space and partnered with a giant SA company, Blue Label Telecommunications, amongst others to submit the best bid under the circumstances,” Mahlori said.
Natasen’s company Neo Solutions advised the commission on the third national lottery licence. His association with the commission has not always been at arm’s length. He was found to have, through Neo Solutions, contributed R2m towards the luxury mansion of former commission chair Alfred Nevahutanda after the company earned more than R26m in fees from the commission.
The special tribunal in 2022 issued a preservation order freezing the mansion and its contents, as part of efforts to recoup millions Nevahutanda allegedly siphoned from the National Lottery Commission.
Natasen also appeared before the state capture commission, where inquiry chair Raymond Zondo made adverse findings against him and Neo Solutions over the looting of SA Express.
Zondo recommended that the National Prosecuting Authority consider charging Natasen, the sole director of Neo Solutions, with money laundering and use of the proceeds of crime after Zondo found Natasen was involved in laundering R9.9m in a scheme involving former SA Express commercial manager Brian van Wyk.
“Mr Natasen allowed his company to be used to conceal proceeds that the commercial manager of SA Express had syphoned out of the North West government’s coffers,” the state capture final report read.
“Mr Natasen’s conduct should form an important part of the authorities’ further investigations of this matter. The commission recommends that serious consideration be given by the National Prosecuting Authority to charging Mr Natasen with money laundering and the use of the proceeds of crime after such further investigation as the law enforcement agencies may conduct and if the further investigations reveal possible contravention of the relevant law.”
Business Day reported last month that many lottery shortlisted entities or people running them had close ties to the ANC. The request for proposals prohibits political parties from having direct or indirect financial interest in the licensee or being a significant shareholder of the licensee. The request for proposals specifies “alliance” meaning the ANC, SACP and Cosatu.
Despite this requirement, an entity such as Thebe Investments, half owned by Batho Batho Trust, has donated R60m to the ANC since 2021, according to declarations made to the IEC. Batho Batho Trust was founded by ANC leaders in 1992.
Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) has also thrown its name in the hat to win the lucrative tender. HCI is run by trade unionist turned-businessman Johnny Copelyn, one of the businesspeople who donated to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign. HCI is majority-owned by the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu), an affiliate of Cosatu, which is in alliance with the ANC.
Businessperson Sandile Zungu’s consortium Goldrush is also in the running to win the licence to operate the national lottery. Zungu in 2022 made a bid to chair the ANC’s biggest province, KwaZulu-Natal.
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