By Johnathan Paoli
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said on Wednesday it welcomed a Special Tribunal judgment that kept former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba’s R2.8 million pension benefits frozen, after he sought to overturn an earlier preservation order.
The SIU said the ruling affirmed the tribunal’s authority to preserve pension funds under the Pension Funds Act, after Letwaba argued the Special Tribunal had no jurisdiction to freeze pension benefits.
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In the judgment, Judge M Victor, President of the Special Tribunal, said: “In the result, the first defendant’s quest to seek the release of his pension fund must fail.”
Letwaba’s legal team argued that section 37D of the Pension Funds Act permits deductions from pension benefits only where “judgment has been obtained against the member in any court”, and relied on a Constitutional Court finding that the Special Tribunal is not a “court of law”.
But the SIU urged what Victor described as a “harmonious interpretation” of the Pension Funds Act and the Special Investigating Units and Special Tribunals Act, and the judge warned: “To do otherwise would be absurd”.
The SIU said its investigation found Letwaba abused his position to divert lottery funds intended for community upliftment projects into companies and trusts linked to family members and close associates.
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The preservation order was granted in September 2022 after Letwaba resigned from the NLC amid allegations of wrongdoing, with the tribunal interdicting Liberty Group from paying out pension benefits of about R2.8 million pending the SIU’s civil proceedings.
Victor noted in the ruling that the case involved allegations of large-scale misuse of public funds, adding: “The amounts involved run into millions of Rand.”
The tribunal dismissed Letwaba’s application with costs, ordering him to pay the SIU’s legal costs, including the cost of counsel.