Parliament shortlists eight candidates for Lottery chair

First published in GroundUp.

Parliament’s Trade, Industry and Competition portfolio committee has finalised a shortlist of eight candidates to be interviewed for the vacant post of chairperson of the board of the National Lotteries Commission.

The vacancy opened up after the 11-year scandal-ridden tenure of former chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda ended on 30 November. Zandile Brown, who represents the Trade, Industry and Competitions minister on the board, will serve as acting chairperson until a permanent appointment is finalised.

A shortlist of eight candidates, which the EFF and ACDP unsuccessfully attempted to extend to ten, has now been drawn up. The list and candidates’ CVs will now be posted on all of Parliament’s social media platforms and members of the public will be able to comment or raise objections up until 8 March.

Interviews of shortlisted candidates will be held in-person in Parliament on 9 March.

The committee will now meet to finalise questions and agree on a scoring and weighting system to assess candidates.

Parliament will select three candidates, one of whom will be appointed by Minister Ebrahim Patel.

The shortlisted candidates, in order of the number of parties that supported them, are:

• Terry Tselane: former Independent Electoral Commission vice-chairperson;


• Dr Barney Pityana: advocate, human rights lawyer and cleric, and former University of South Africa vice-chancellor and principal;


• Beryl D. Ferguson: former Cope MP and current South African National Diversity Institute board chairperson;


• Gugulethu G Xaba (no information available);


• Dr Muthuhadini Madzivhandila, NLC board member since 1 April 2017;


• Rev Frank Chikane: cleric and moderator on international affairs for the World Council of Churches. Secretary of the Cabinet under both Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe;


• Ashwin Trikamjee, lawyer who has served as an acting judge. Currently chairperson of the South African Football Association’s Appeals Board; and


• Themba TC Dlamini, a former CEO of the Media Development and Diversity Agency. DM