Restructuring of S.A. National Gambling Board planned

Changes in the way South African government agencies like the scandal-ridden National Gambling Board is managed have been detailed by a senior official in the Department of Trade and Industry.

Deputy director general Zodwa Ntuli said that the intention of government is to restructure agencies like the NGB in order to make them directly accountable to the Department instead of their own boards of directors.

She noted that a review of the current management system has concluded that the boards of these entities incur unnecessary expenditure, and slow down the regulatory process in the industries they govern.

“We want structures that make it easier for these entities to be effective and not stifled,” she said, adding that the NGB would be expected to focus on enforcing laws on illegal gambling in addition to regulatory oversight responsibilities, and that amendments to the National Gambling Act would be proposed to strengthen enforcement against online gambling, which has grown rapidly in South Africa..

The board of the NGB was suspended last year, and a forensic investigation launched, amid allegations of gross corruption, maladministration and mismanagement (see previous reports). The organisation is currently managed by two administrators appointed by the DTI.

Kodwa said that the Board would become a trading entity of the DTI, albeit with its own staff and infrastructure, which would include audit and other internal bodies tasked to ensure good governance.

The separate National Lotteries Board will be rebranded the National Lotteries Commission, and will retain its board of directors due to the need for close supervision in a body that handles very large sums of money, Kodwa revealed.

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