First published by GroundUp.
Relations between Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel and the board of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) are now largely reduced to exchanges of lawyers’ letters and official correspondence.
This became evident on Wednesday when the minister addressed the Trade and Industry Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, which has oversight responsibility of the Lottery, at a virtual meeting.
The battle between Patel and the NLC has also involved briefings to selected media, as well as leaks of letters and documents.
Patel had requested a meeting with the portfolio committee to discuss the extension of the term of Zandile Brown, his representative on the NLC board and its acting chairperson. Brown, whose term as acting chair was due to end at midnight on 31 March, was appointed in the acting position after the 11-year tenure of the NLC’s former scandal-ridden chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.