The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) will tell the court next month that it cannot afford to have the sale of tickets suspended while eight bidders battle over a multibillion-ran tender to run the lottery because it would lead to market share losses.
The NLC, chaired by Barney Pityana, is opposing an application brought by one of the bidders, Wina Njalo, to stop the commission and trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau from awarding a temporary, 12-month temporary licence until he decides on the preferred bidder.
Wina Njalo, an offshoot of JSE-listed Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) wants Tau to commit to a date when the preferred bidder will be announced.
In an affidavit to the court Pityana said it was the commission that had proposed a temporary licence Tau informed it in December that he was not in a position to award the tender.
In December Tau said he would not name a preferred bidder until he had identified “matters that require further evaluation”, stating that the law requires him to ensure no political party or its office bearers has a financial interest in the applicants.
Pityana will tell the court a temporary licence was the preferred option the minister makes up his mind, dismissing Wina Njalo’s assertions that Tau favoured the incumbent Ithuba by issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for the temporary licence.
Ithuba’s licence is set to expire at the end of next month. The company is among seven others looking to be awarded the fourth licence, said to be worth in the region of R90bn.
“The board advisers concluded that the temporary licence option was the most plausible under the circumstance; that is , not to cease operations on 1 June 2025 if there is no successful applicant in the licensing process for the fourth licence. The board considered and accepted this advice,” Pityana’s affidavit reads.
He said the advice which the NLC accepted was premised on three considerations. First, should the sales of lottery tickets be suspended, there would be a “loss of market share by the lottery to gambling operators and the gambling market.”
He said another consideration is that the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF), which distributes proceeds from the lottery to NGOs, will lose revenue.
Tau, in his affidavit, tore into Wina Njalo’s allegations of favouritism.
“The applicant complains that the RFP was structured in such a way as to favour Ithuba. I deny that allegation. I wish to point out that the applicant did not identify any single provision of the RFP that could possibly have the effect of favouring Ithuba.”
Business Day has through a series of articles revealed how politically connected entities were in the running to win the lucrative tender.
One of the outfits vying for the tender is the Ringela Consortium, led by Thebe Investments, which is half-owned by ANC benefactor the Batho Batho Trust. According to declarations made to the Electoral Commission of SA, the trust has donated R60m to the ANC since 2021.
The Batho Batho Trust was founded by ANC leaders in 1992.
Wina Njalo is owned by HCI, which is majority-owned by the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union. The union is an affiliate of Cosatu, which together with the SACP forms the so-called tripartite alliance with the ANC.
HCI is run by former trade unionist Johnny Copelyn who was to donor to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign for the ANC presidency IN 2017.
Former minister of trade, industry & competition Ebrahim Patel is a former Sactwu secretary-general.
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