Chairperson, this House, on the request of Minister Davies, mandated the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry to short list and interview candidates for the National Lotteries Board and to make recommendations to the Minister for their appointment and specifically for the position of chairperson.
The process started off as proactive, fully inclusive and transparent, with a multiparty team involved in all the preparations: the setting up of the criteria to be followed during interviews, the short listing of candidates, etc.
The agreed list of 16 criteria was based on the content of the advertisement, the mandate from the National Lotteries Act, which is specifically to benefit the categories of sport, arts and culture and welfare, and to improve the very poor record of the current board in terms of which, amongst other things, reserves of more than R7 billion has been accumulated, while NGOs and other deserving organisations have had to close their doors owing to the lack of funds from the Lotto.
Sadly, the portfolio committee failed its first real test when it failed to propose a board on the merits of expertise, as per the requirements of the Act, to improve the distribution outcomes of the board and to have a board demographically representing our nation.
It became clear that the ANC members made their proposals not on the above criteria, but on criteria not provided for in the Act: on ANC affiliation and per the ANC caucus instructions. The committee process and objectives clearly enjoyed little or no priority in this.
This not only made a mockery of the whole process, but it also discredits the perceived competency of the new board to be appointed and the work of the committee. It also questions the justification of spending lots of money on flying the candidates to Cape Town and putting them in expensive hotels when the ANC had quite evidently already decided on the deployment of their cronies to the board.
This is wasteful expenditure at a time when we can least afford it. Does this enjoy the support of the Minister? [Time expired.]