What is the SIU’s lottery probe into the Sunday Times editor all about?

Who’s the focus of this particular mess?

While the saga includes a range of figures, the public focus has been on Makhudu Sefara, the editor of the Sunday Times and chairperson of the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), positions he has held since 2024 and February 2025 respectively. He edited Sunday World in 2019 and 2020. Before that, Sefara was editor of The Star and Sunday Independent.

What’s all the fuss about?

On Tuesday, 28 April 2026, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) revealed that a company directed by Sefara was linked to a lottery-funded project under its investigation.

According to the SIU, it had recovered R1.5-million that was “misappropriated” by a company called the Todi Media Development Foundation – one of two cases that the SIU said highlighted a “coordinated scheme in which public funds meant for community upliftment were diverted into private pockets and toward property purchases.”

The unit said the R1.5-million grant from National Lotteries Commission (NLC) to Todi Media in 2018 was intended for a media project that “included covering journalists’ accommodation, car hire, catering, equipment rental, guest speakers, marketing, security, etc”.

However, the SIU found the money was instead diverted to two companies: Unscripted Communication and Black Dungaree. Sefara is the sole director of Unscripted Communication, which received R550,000.

Black Dungaree received R900,000, which the SIU said was used to purchase a property. (Sefara is not linked to this Black Dungaree.)

“As a result, Khutso Daniel Makwela, the director of Todi Media Development Foundation NPC, admitted misuse, signed an Acknowledgement of Debt (AOD) and repaid the full R1.5-million on 30 March 2026,” the SIU said in a statement.

Anything else?

Yes. The SIU findings surrounding the NLC funds stem from 2018, when Sefara was not working as a journalist or involved in Sanef. But, as GroundUp’s Raymond Joseph reported, the payments to Sefara’s company were made just months before he was appointed editor of Sunday World in July 2019.

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GroundUp has been at the forefront of exposing corruption at the National Lotteries Commission for years. In particular, the publication has raised concerns about Sunday World’s relationship with the commission since 2019, while Sefara was editor.

In 2023, GroundUp exposed how a “disproportionate amount” of advertising money from the National Lotteries Commission went to Sunday World. At the time, GroundUp’s then editor, Nathan Geffen, raised concerns about Sefara, who was a member of Sanef’s management committee, with the national editors’ forum.

What does Sefara say?

Sefara has denied wrongdoing, saying the funds were used for a community media training event held at Birchwood Hotel, Boksburg, in December 2018. According to Sefara, “over 50 members of the community media sector” attended the event, and he has images and receipts as proof of this.

He said he was approached by the head of Todi Media to organise a community media event in 2018, while he was operating Unscripted Communication and “not attached to any other institution, private or public”.

“To claim that some funds were ‘diverted’ into private pockets to create an impression of impropriety on my part is not just false and therefore harmful, but a poor strategy to use my name to generate undue publicity. There could be no doubt on whether or not the event took place. As CEO of a communications firm, I was entitled to pursue business which included organising community media workshops,” said Sefara.

He accused the SIU of “grandstanding” and said he had not been contacted by the unit for clarification.

“The facts are plain and available to the SIU. The event [took] place and was attended by over 50 people. Pictures and videos were taken at the event. Accommodation was paid for. Flights were booked and paid for. The event was addressed by the GCIS [Government Communication and Information System] deputy head at the time, along with other speakers. I facilitated the event.

“If my company, a service provider, is guilty [of] receiving funds to organise an event, this must surely also mean the hotel, the airline, bus companies that received funds to accommodate and transport these conference attendees are equally liable. It’s preposterous. I deny any impropriety on this,” he said.

What happens now?

Following the SIU’s findings, Arena Holdings has placed Sefara on special leave pending the conclusion of an independent investigative process into the matter.

The findings of this process, the company said, would guide its decisions going forward.

“Arena Holdings has engaged directly with Mr Sefara regarding the allegations. Mr Sefara has denied any wrongdoing and has provided the company with his account of the events in question. Having considered the matter, management has resolved to afford Mr Sefara the necessary time and space to address the allegations and to seek to clear his name,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sanef also announced that Sefara had stepped down pending an investigation at an urgent management committee (Mancom) meeting on Tuesday night.

“Sefara was afforded an opportunity to give his version of the events at the meeting, where he denied the allegations. He offered to step aside from his role at Sanef while he responds to the allegations.

“Sanef’s Mancom accepted this decision and appointed Tshamano Makhadi, the current deputy chairperson, as acting chairperson. Furthermore, Sanef has decided to appoint an independent legal team to evaluate the evidence and to report back as soon as possible,” it said in a statement.

What’s been the reaction?

There has been some reaction from political quarters. The DA has called for a “fully transparent probe” into the scandal. The party’s spokesperson on Trade, Industry and Competition, Toby Chance, said Arena Holdings’ independent investigation must be done “with absolute transparency, so that all of the findings are publicly disclosed for the integrity of the free press”.

“Public trust in the media requires the highest ethical standards. The editor of the Sunday Times and the chairperson of Sanef are both pivotal roles in the South African press landscape. The DA maintains that the seriousness of these allegations warrants urgent and transparent scrutiny, stressing that public confidence in the media depends on accountability and adherence to the highest ethical standards,” Chance said.

The EFF, meanwhile, said the SIU revelations confirmed what the party had maintained for years, that “sections of the South African media are deeply compromised because they are materially linked to political patronage networks and corrupt state-connected funding streams”. DM