African Liberty Movement’s bid to interdict Lotteries body flops

Balls roll in the lottery. Picture: File

Balls roll in the lottery. Picture: File

Published Dec 3, 2020

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Pretoria - The African Liberty Movement has failed in its legal bid to interdict the National Lotteries Commission from publishing the names of beneficiaries of grants in its next annual report.

It turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to also interdict the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry from ordering the National Lotteries Commission to publish such a list of beneficiaries on any public platform, including social media.

The organisation, which seeks to advance the plight of marginalised black people, said it was acting on behalf of a beneficiary, whose name it could not disclose.

For the first 18 years after the establishment of the National Lotteries Commission, the annual report always included a list of beneficiaries who had received funding together with the specific amount received.

The 2018/19 annual report did not contain this information, for the reason that publication of the information would amount to a breach of the regulations relating to distribution agencies.

This had occurred after reports of maladministration and corruption at the National Lotteries Commission had been published and investigations of such allegations were instituted.

The parliamentary portfolio committee, however, decided in July that the names of beneficiaries must again be published, which triggered this urgent application.

The portfolio committee instructed the commission to submit the names of beneficiaries who had received funds from the Covid-19 relief fund and the amount granted to each beneficiary.

The commission also had to submit the names of beneficiaries for the previous financial years where their details had not been included in the annual reports, together with their category and the amount of funding granted. The commission was told to publish the names of beneficiaries for the 2019/20 annual report “as is required by law”.

The applicant told the court that in October it came to its attention that the portfolio committee was persisting in its instruction to have the names of the beneficiaries published in the annual report to be published in November. The organisation urgently wanted to interdict the disclosure.

Judge SN Mokose said the liberty movement gave no information to the court as to why the member it is representing could not go to court, and whether it’s a person or an entity.

“Court processes are matters of public record. A court order could have been sought without using the litigant's name, affording the confidentiality required. This happens all the time in our courts.” She said that under these circumstances she had to dismiss the application.

Pretoria News

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