According to the Natal Witness, the National Lotteries Board has distributed R2bn in grants to 4 700 beneficiaries nationally since its inception in 2000. The National Lotteries Board spokesperson, Sershan Naidoo, indicated that the board has also allocated R1bn to 1 300 beneficiaries between April 2003 and March 2004.The biggest grant ever allocated thus far has been to the Children's Hospital Trust and other major beneficiaries include the South African National Council for Child and Family Welfare, South African Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders, Project Literacy and the Association for People with Disabilities.

One of the main promises of the Obasanjo administration when it kicked off in 1999 was to fight corruption. One of the first bills presented to the National Assembly was the Independent Corrupt Practices (and Other Related Offences) Bill. The bill was duly passed. Many human rights activists condemned that Act which was considered too harsh. They argued that the law could be a potent weapon for a dictator to hunt the opposition. On the other hand, the President and the ruling party argued that existing law had too many loopholes which offenders were exploring to escape punishment. Four years after, Nigeria is still deemed the most corrupt country in the world.

IOL reports that UNAids, a United Nations agency that funds Aids programmes, will no longer fund NPOs directly due to a lack of accountability. The move that NPOs have termed "retrogressive" was proposed by Zambia and Zimbabwe and was supported by Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia. UNAids will instead channel funding for Aids programmes via government authorities dealing with Aids. Some donors criticised NPOs for spending too much money on salaries, with little money going to medicine and care programmes.

The seizure of the Hakhaseb multi-purpose community centre-kindergarten at Usakos on Monday has left many children and their family members traumatised. Usakos Municipal personnel, accompanied by armed Police officers, stormed the centre on Monday and locked the complex. Angry mothers told The Namibian that their children were having nightmares and anxiety attacks during the night. "The children are scared that the Police will come and lock them up," said Fielie Walda, whose one-year-old daughter attends the kindergarten.