If UCSA had been successful, GroundUp would’ve had to remove articles that have exposed corruption, incompetence and conflicts of interest by NLC employees and grant recipients.and committed to paying their legal costs.In June UCSA began litigating against us in the Pretoria High Court. The organisation wanted the court to declare that GroundUp was breaching a regulation of the Lotteries Act that, they claim, protects the confidentiality of recipients of National Lotteries Commission grants.
The NLC was cited as a second respondent by UCSA, but its affidavit in the case made it clear that it supported UCSA’s arguments. UCSA appears to have only been formed this year. Other than reporting that UCSA had held a protest, primarily against GroundUp, we had never previously reported on this organisation.
Several recipients of lottery grants also intended to join the case as friends of the court. They intended to argue that the NLC should indeed make its list of recipients public.About one third of every lottery ticket sale is supposed to be distributed by the NLC to organisations that do good works. This was the justification for the lottery when it was introduced two decades ago.
But following pressure from the Department of Trade and Industry and Parliament, it appears the NLC has backed down from this position. It has stated on its website that it will publish its grant recipients in its next annual report.