In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Toby Chance, the Democratic Alliance's (DA’s) Spokesperson on Trade, Industry and Competition, details yet another harsh blow to former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) staff who had exposed large-scale corruption and illegal grants of up to R2bn. He describes how they were initially promised R20m for reparations, but recently informed that they won’t receive monetary compensation. “It turns out that most of the money would have been spent on consulting fees and other things which doesn't help the whistleblowers one bit…they’ve been financially ruined. Their families have abandoned them. They're living in caravans. They're close to suicide. They've lost their jobs. They can't get jobs. Their lives have been completely ruined…. these people risk everything for exposing the rot at the NLC”. Chance further points out that, between 2019 and 2024, the NLC spent over R70 million on legal fees, “much of which was spent on basically taking the whistleblowers to court and protecting the NLC from the charges that were levelled against them by the whistleblowers”. Meanwhile, “not a single one of (those implicated) has yet been presented with a set of yellow overalls”.

Chance also gives an update on the legal battles over the awarding of the 4th licence.