Former Hawks heavyweight, Hangwani Mulaudzi on the ropes in wake of NLC scandal. Picture: Facebook
FORMER Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi has been pitted against his former colleagues after he was implicated in a multimillion-rand National Lotteries Commission (NLC) corruption investigation.
The R3 million grant was allegedly squandered after being handed over to the Hangwani Mulaudzi Foundation, an organisation belonging to him, to build a sports facility to cater for the youth in Mukondeni Village in Venda, Limpopo.
However, investigations revealed that Malaudzi, together with his wife Rudzani allegedly blew the lottery funds to procure luxury vehicles, an expensive life and other personal needs.
Mulaudzi reportedly used some of the money to pay for his children's school fees and paid the bulk of the money, R2 million, to an insider in the NLC to “clean” it.
Last week it was reported that the Hawks had handed over a dossier to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) after completing the investigation on their former colleague.
The dossier reportedly contained details of how Mulaudzi and an insider in the NLC allegedly cleaned the money that was misappropriated from the grant that was meant to benefit the community.
Also subject of investigation in the dossier was former NLC Head of Risk, Marubini Ramatsekisa, who has been implicated in a series of corruption cases involving the lotteries grants.
The incomplete sports facility that was meant to include a changing room with a soccer field and a netball court has been left in ruins and inhabited by criminals and drug users.
It remains to be seen if the NPA will prosecute on the matter.
After the lid was blown on the NLC sports facility scandal, Mulaudzi tendered his letter of resignation to Hawks head Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya citing personal reasons while claiming that he was targeted by “a lot of people”.
Mulaudzi said at the time: “It is a smear campaign. A lot of people wanted me out because they believed that I had connections with the old guard. It is not because of them that I am leaving, but I have a family as well.”
At the time, Mulaudzi had been subject of a backlash from the DA after the scandal was revealed, with the party questioning the commission’s relationship with Mulaudzi following the Hawks investigations on the grants.
In December last year the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) froze Ramatsekisa’s pension payout estimated to be around R1.7 million for his role in the NLC grant debacle.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago had initially said that the Special Tribunal order had interdicted Ramatsekisa from withdrawing his pension benefits.
He said the pension fund will remain interdicted pending the finalisation of an application to be brought against him by the SIU.
“Ramatsekisa resigned from the NLC after the lottery commission instituted disciplinary proceedings against him allegedly to avoid accountability. Immediately after he resigned, Ramatsekisa wrote to his pension fund administrator that he intended to withdraw his pension benefits, prompting the SIU to seek an interdict.”
Kganyago added the unit's investigation found that Ramatsekisa was a key player and a willing facilitator of an elaborate scheme to defraud the commission through proactive funding.
Mulaudzi and Ramatsekisa are not the only ones being investigated by the SIU.
The unit has cast a bigger net on the R1.4 billion scandal.
On Wednesday the unit announced that they were on the brink of solving the R1.4 biilion NLC and all its subjects, describing the entity as a criminal enterprise.
Its head, Andy Mothibi, was updating the portfolio committee on trade and industry in Parliament on the status of its investigation into the NLC.
The unit reported that they had completed 90% of phase two in the investigation which is worth R1.4 billion lost to the government and the commission.
Mothibi described the NLC as a criminal enterprise as the unit had unveiled a web of criminal activities and collusion between senior members of the commission, legal representatives and its subjects that were meant to benefit from the fund including non-profit-organisations.
Other high-profile subjects into the investigations include artist and businessman Arthur Mafokate and actress Terry Pheto, who won an Oscar for the movie, ‘Tsotsi’, and fashion designer Thula Sindi.
mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za