Lotto shenanigans take toll on investigative journalist

NICOLA MILTZ

For months Joseph, a seasoned freelance reporter and media trainer, and Anton van Zyl, the editor of the Limpopo Mirror, have been investigating alleged corruption and incompetence in NLC contracts.

Their exposés appearing in news agency GroundUp and elsewhere have caused the ire of the NLC, which has reportedly responded by launching personal attacks on Joseph.

“It’s like a microcosm of state capture, and I’m right in the middle of it,” he told the SA Jewish Report.

Their numerous scathing reports have raised concern over how money meant for “good causes” – poverty relief and charity – is in some cases being dispersed in highly questionable ways.

After more than a year of persistent media coverage by GroundUp’s investigative team and other media, the NLC is finally investigating the corruption claims, with the NLC board appointing Sekela Xabiso to investigate fraud allegations against it.

A determined Joseph has on many occasions self-funded his investigations, making sure he is on the ground travelling the width and breadth of the country to see for himself how lottery money is being used and, in some cases, abused.

His investigations have opened a Pandora’s box of alleged corruption and incompetence. In a series of hard-hitting articles, Joseph and the small team of investigative journalists including his daughter, Roxanne Joseph, have uncovered a string of alleged irregularities and the misuse of lottery grant money.

“The biggest losers are poor people who really deserve the money. It outrages me that money raised to uplift the poor is being abused. I keep saying I can’t be shocked by things, but this is shocking. Ultimately, it’s the poor who are being robbed, and to think how much good this money could do,” he said.

For months, while evidence of corruption and incompetence piled up in GroundUp reports, Joseph felt the brunt of personal attacks levelled against him.

Nathan Geffen, the editor of GroundUp jumped to Joseph’s defence last year when the Sunday World repeated an “absurd” NLC accusation that Joseph was “writing scathing stories about them [the NLC] after it stopped funding a non-governmental organisation of which he was once a director”.

Geffen wrote, “For the record, Joseph was a founding member and former editor of The Big Issue decades ago. He was an unpaid board member from 1997 until 2016, when he resigned.

“The Big Issue is a non-profit magazine sold by homeless people. To suggest a link between this and the stories Joseph has been publishing since early 2018 is ridiculous,” he said.

Earlier this month, the NLC said it intended to lay criminal charges against Joseph and GroundUp over the ongoing, in-depth investigations involving multi-million-rand lottery grants. It accused them of breaching the law by revealing details of lottery grants.

The NLC has demanded that GroundUp remove several hard-hitting stories from its website, many of which exposed incompetence, shoddy workmanship, nepotism, and probable corruption involving millions in lottery-funded projects.

Joseph said the Lotto investigations had “consumed him for a long time”.

“It’s the second time in my 46-year career as a journalist that I’ve become personally wrapped up in the story, and refused to let go. I’m the reporter on the ground who is witness to what’s going on. This isn’t my story, it’s about corruption and how money is being misused to the detriment of the ones who need it most. The lottery has dispensed about R26 billion over its life, this isn’t chump change. It’s now dispensing about R1.5 billion a year, so this isn’t small change, and can be used for a lot of good.”

Joseph said he was self-funding investigations because he was so “outraged” by what he was uncovering. He realised if he stopped reporting, “the story would die”. He said with the help of GroundUp, the story was alive and developing daily.

“I came very close to throwing in the towel. Time is money, and this has certainly taken its toll – financially especially,” he said.

Over the past several months, Joseph has been accused of theft, stealing documents, and being disgruntled.

“It’s been tough going. I’m not used to being in the spotlight. From the beginning, we made a rule that nothing would be published without at least two sources to corroborate information. There have been some very brave whistle blowers. They are the real heroes as they are taking huge risks.

”Honestly I’ve been attacked and defamed, but I have a policy that I don’t believe journalists should sue, suing is a distraction, and expensive. I speak with my pen. I refuse to get into a street fight and defend myself. Throwing mud around is time-consuming and exhausting. The closer you get, the more personal it gets. My biggest defence mechanism is to keep publishing.”

The NLC has been granting funding to non-profit organisations, non-government organisations, public benefit trusts, schools, and communities since 2002.

A percentage of the weekly proceeds are paid over by the licensed lottery operator – appointed every seven years and currently Ithuba – to the NLC, which is regulated by the department of trade and industry. By 2017, it had distributed more than R24 billion to good causes: R10.7 billion of that has gone to charities, R6.3-billion to arts, culture and national heritage, R6.1 billion to sport and recreation, and R686 million to “miscellaneous”.

The Democratic Alliance shadow minister for trade and industry, Dean Macpherson, has written to the minister of trade and industry, Ebrahim Patel, asking him to place the NLC under administration, to dismiss its board, and suspend its chief operating officer.

In spite of ongoing revelations about alleged corruption, the minister has reportedly remained silent.