Media personality Minnie Dlamini has repaid R50,000 she unlawfully received from funds granted by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) in 2016, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) confirmed today.
The money was part of a R24 million grant intended for a non-profit organisation, Mashand Dukani, for road shows ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics. According to the SIU, Mashand Dukani did not perform the work it was funded to do. The unit’s investigation into the distribution of that R24 million identified Dlamini as a beneficiary of a portion of the misdirected funds.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago, speaking in a live television interview, stated that Dlamini cooperated with the investigation.
“This matter has been going on since the proclamation was put up in 2020,” Kganyago said. “We reached an agreement that she will pay it back as she has agreed that it was not paid to her lawfully. Therefore she has already paid the money… she has already paid the 50,000 as we speak.”
Kganyago confirmed that Dlamini is now “in the clear” regarding this specific payment, but emphasised that the SIU’s work to recoup the full R24 million is ongoing. The unit has already frozen properties belonging to Mashand Dukani and is pursuing other beneficiaries.
The spokesperson detailed systemic failures at the NLC that allowed the abuse. “We realised that there was a loophole in how the applications and the approvals of the grant funding was done,” he said, confirming the SIU has made recommendations to the NLC to close these gaps. He described a process where individuals would collude to have grants approved, knowing the money would not be used for its intended purpose.
In a related but separate case, Kganyago provided an update on another high-profile figure implicated in the wider NLC scandal, superstar producer DJ Maphorisa. He confirmed that investigation involves a different NPO and that the SIU has frozen a lodge in Midrand purchased with the misappropriated funds. The unit is finalising matters before a tribunal to apply for a forfeiture order to sell the property.
The SIU’s broader “consequence management” phase includes cancelling agreements with hijacked or bogus NPOs used to funnel lottery grants and recovering all unlawfully dispersed funds to return to the NLC.