Johannesburg - The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has called on non-profit organisations, non-governmental organisations, public benefit trusts, schools and communities to apply for funding.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, NLC commissioner Charlotte Mampane said Tuesday's call was the second of three done annually for the public to apply for funding.
Funds have been set aside as prescribed by the National Lotteries Act.
The NLC will in future disburse proactive funding to qualifying beneficiaries.
"We are anticipating a positive response and we therefore urge organisations to submit their applications as early as possible,” Mampane said.
"However, we would like to stress that beneficiaries must still comply with set criteria in order for their applications to be considered."
She said the change of status from being the National Lotteries Board to National Lotteries Commission will have no impact upon their mandate to help communities through grants, with the application and adjudication process to continue as before.
Applications opened on Sunday for registered medium-sized organisations hoping to secure funding in excess of R500 000.
Applications for smaller organisations will open on October 1.
The closing dates for applications for medium and smaller-sized organisations are September 3 and October 1 this year respectively.
The National Lotteries Board (NLB) was relaunched as the NLC on June 29.
''It is a renewed commitment to being the catalyst for social upliftment,'' said Mampane, who was the CEO of the NLB before the rebranding.
She said the launch marked a ''new dawn'' for the 16-year-old organisation, which had distributed close to R20bn so far.
The rebranding also followed the controversial change of operator from Gidani to Ithuba on June 1.
