Question NW724 to the Minister of Trade and Industry
17 March 2016 - NW724
Holomisa, Dr BH to ask the Minister of Trade and Industry
(1)Whether , with reference to the activities of the original owners of the Gold Reef City Casino Gambling Licence and the Gauteng Gambling Board (GGB), the Registrar of Companies and the National Lotteries Commission, NLC, formerly known as National Lotteries Board, NLB, whether a certain person (name furnished), a founding director of a certain company (name furnished), served for a period as Chief Executive Officer of the aforementioned board; if so, (a) what was the period of the employment of the specified person as CEO of the specified board, (b) what circumstances gave rise to such a situation, (c) according to what statutory of legal authority was an external contractor appointed to serve in the position of CEO of a government institution and (e) was the appointment of the specified person not a breach of the specified board’s policy concerning the conflict of interests; (2) who were the other natural persons and/or juristic persons with a financial stake in certain companies (names furnished) at the time of the grant of R1.5 million; (3) whether a certain company (names furnished), in any manner, influenced the adjudication of the application for funding submitted by a certain person (name furnished) on behalf of a certain museum (name furnished); (4) can the recordings of a certain trust fund (name furnished) be made available when they adjudicated the application for a grant-in-aid submitted by the specified person?NW844E
Reply:
1. (a) According to the response received from the NGB, Mr Biyela was never an employee of the Gauteng Gambling Board.
(b) According to the response received from the NGB, Mr Mokhobo served as an Acting Chief Executive Officer of the GGB.
(c) According to the response received from the NGB, Mr Mokhobo served as an Acting Chief Executive Officer of the GGB from 01 January 1998 to 14 April 1998.
(d) According to the response received from the NGB, the position was vacant since the then Chief Executive Officer had resigned in December 1997.
(e) At the time the Board had appointed Gobodo Incorporated to assist it with the probity investigations relating to the casino licence applications in terms of section 15 of the Gauteng Gambling Board Act, Mr Mokhobo was responsible for the Gobodo investigating team. Mr Mokhobo was appointed as the Acting Chief Executive Officer whilst the recruitment process was underway. A permanent Chief Executive Officer was then appointed effective from 15 April 1998.The appointment of Mr Mokhobo did not breach any of the board’s policy concerning the conflict of interest since Gobodo was not an applicant to the Board nor licencee; and was already performing duties on behalf of the Board.
2. According to the response received from the NLC, the NLC does not know who the financial stakeholders of the applicants are as this information is not required.
3. According to the response received from the NLC, the response is no.
4. According to the response received from the NLC, the response is no. Recordings are only kept for a period of five years. The adjudication of the application was in 2008, and therefore records are not available.