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 after allegations that Ramatsekisa had orchestrated a scheme that resulted in the NLC losing about R4m. He was suspended in September 2022 and subsequently resigned.
Ramatsekisa sought to rescind or vary the order, claiming it was sought “erroneously” and granted in his absence.
Special Tribunal member judge David Makhoba has dismissed his application and confirmed the interdict granted in favour of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
Makhoba also ruled that Ramatsekisa pay the costs of the application.
In his recent judgment, Makhoba said the SIU had obtained an order preserving the pension benefit, about R1.7m, held by Liberty Life, after an ex parte (without notice to the other side) application.
The basis for the interdict was that Ramatsekisa had caused a loss of R4m to the NLC.
It was alleged that he prepared a proposal for “proactive funding” to conduct a study to assist the development of the Khoisan languages.
The funding — R4m — was awarded to a company known as Zibsicraft.
The SIU alleges Ramatsekisa lied about contacting a stakeholder from the department of arts & culture and he did not ensure that Zibsicraft’s application for grant funding was done through normal processes. Neither did he ensure that the people associated with that organisation had any links to the Khoisan community nor that they had ever done any work associated with the community.
Makhoba said the SIU had also alleged that Ramatsekisa had used the same technique in awarding a R5.5m grant for developing cricket in the Northern Cape.
Those funding projects were not assessed, evaluated or adjudicated by a distributing agency, but by former NLC n COO Phillemon Letwaba and Ramatsekisa.
Letwaba signed the grant agreement on behalf of the National Lotteries Commission and Ramatsekisa signed as his witness.
Ramatsekisa submitted that the interdict should be reconsidered and set aside, arguing 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”.
Makhoba said in these applications the evidence contained in the SIU application was “considered from scratch”. The test was whether the SIU had made a good case for the interdict it obtained in the ex parte application.
He said there were “shortcomings” in the manner in which Ramatsekisa had dealt with the funding of the Zibsicraft matter.
Zibsicraft had no credible financial statements, normal processes were not followed, and the “Khoisan community link” did not exist.
‘Unlawful grant awards’
“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,” 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, Kganyago said soon after the proactive funding was approved for the Khoisan project, three people acquired and became directors of Zibsicraft nonprofit 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 February 28 2018 and February 28 2019. However, the nonprofit organisation only opened a bank account on March 19 2019, six days before it applied for funding,” Kganyago said.
“The SIU found that R2.2m of the R4m 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, 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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