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The raids come a month after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorizing the Special Investigation Unit to investigate mismanagement and corruption in the National Lottery Commission. (Image: Phill Magakoe)
After the Special Investigation Unit and the Hawks raided the offices of the National Lottery Commission, they raided the offices of Lesley Ramulifho, an attorney who has been linked to dubious Lottery grants.
Hours after the offices of the National Lottery Commission (NLC) were assaulted in Hatfield, Pretoria, the SSpecial Investigation Unit (SIU) and Hawks proceeded to raid the offices of attorney Lesley Ramulifho in Garsfontein, Pretoria, who has been linked to dubious Lottery grants.
“I can safely say that they are raiding the offices of an attorney in Garsfontein. [Today] we’ve raided the NLC, Metrofile [a document storage company where the NLC stores many of its files] and now the attorney’s offices, ”said Kaizer Kganyago, a SIU spokesperson, who declined to confirm the attorney’s name.
But Daily maverick has independently confirmed that the attorney whose offices were raided is Leslie Ramulifho, who heads Ramulifho Abogados.
These raids come a month after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorizing the SIU to investigate mismanagement and corruption at the NLC.
Ramulifho is no stranger to controversy. In 2012, the forensic investigation of Ntumba and Associates he found that Ramulifho had “significantly inflated” the bills he submitted to the Pan-African Language Board (PanSALB) for the work he had done for them.
The forensic report recommended that a criminal case be opened against Ramulifho and that PanSALB initiate civil suits to recover the 1.2 million rand paid to Ramulifho.
But Ramulifho’s most recent controversies involve the kidnapping from Denzhe Primary Care, an NGO that had been inactive for four years before Ramulifho kidnapped her.
In 2016, Denzhe received a total of 27.5 million rand from the NLC. The money was intended to build a rehabilitation center and a sports hall. Instead, Ramulifho used R500,000 to purchase two Ocean Basket restaurants. Ramulifho claimed that it was a loan and that he returned the money.
In September, Lionel October, Director General of the Department of Commerce, Industry and Competition (DTIC), saying Parliament that a file of evidence gathered by forensic investigators appointed by DTIC Minister Ebrahim Patel had been turned over to the police, which involved the rand 27.5 million lottery grant that Denzhe had received.
Commenting on the raids on the NLC and Ramulifho’s offices, investigative journalist Raymond Joseph, who has exposed the dubious Lottery grants, said he was relieved.
“The most reassuring thing about this is that the story is current now, I’m not the only one talking about it because when I was NLC I kept saying I have a vendetta,” said Joseph.
The NLC has accused Ground and José from targeting and slandering his leadership.
“It has been hard [writing about the maladministration and corruption at the NLC]. The Lottery has sued and defamed me, “Joseph said. Maverick Journal.
In April 2019, Ramulifho asked the Pretoria High Court to urgently order Ground, The citizen and the Daily dispatch to remove everything articles on their websites that refer to him. He also asked the court to order the publications to publish a retraction and not to publish any more articles about him, pending further litigation.
All three publications objected to Ramulifho’s request. The judge ruled that the request was not urgent and removed it from the roll. It also awarded costs against Ramulifho.
But in the sworn declaration filed for the case, it was alleged that Ramulifho committed fraud, forgery and perjury
A criminal complaint was filed with the police and a similar complaint with the Council of Legal Practice. The Council of Legal Practice ruled in favor of Ramulifho.
Daily maverick He was unable to contact Ramulifho at the time of writing. DM
