The Pretoria high court is to hear arguments brought by one of the bidders vying for the lucrative national lottery licence that could see the lottery suspended for up to a year.
Wina Njalo, an offshoot of JSE-listed Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI), will ask on Monday and Tuesday that the move by trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau to extend the validation period of the eight-year tender and issue a request for proposals for the temporary licence be declared invalid.
One of the charges levelled at Tau by Wina Njalo is that he has failed to timeously award the fourth licence, said to be worth north of R80bn.
It argues that the minister does not require a lengthy period to finalise the tender process and that his decision to issue the request for proposals for the temporary licence is irrational and unlawful.
Should the court rule in Wina Njalo’s favour, lottery sales might be suspended for months — a possibility Tau and the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) oppose.
The commission in its legal papers scoffed at Wina Njalo’s assertions and accusation that Tau did not consult the commission before issuing a temporary licence request for proposals.
“We submit that where the NLC confirms that it has been consulted, it is not for Wina Njalo to second-guess the NLC and contend that the minister denied the NLC the opportunity to be consulted,” the commission says.
The commission also poured cold water on Wina Njalo’s allegation that the temporary licence was designed to benefit incumbent Ithuba, and it alone.
“There is no evidence that it was prepared for Ithuba. The perception that Ithuba may be more likely to win the temporary licence is not due to bias from the NLC or its advisers,” it said.
“This may be due to incumbency which would apply to any incumbent licensee who is also an applicant for the temporary licence at the end of their term, regardless of whether their licence had been extended previously.”
Tau, who took office when the process was at an advanced stage in December, delayed the decision to appoint a preferred bidder after raising concerns about the evaluation process, saying he needed to ensure that no “political party or political office-bearer has any direct financial interest in the applicant or a shareholder of the applicant”.
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 associations vying for the tender is the Ringela Consortium, led by Thebe Investments and Absa chair Sello Moloko’s investment company, Thesele Group.
Thebe Investments is half-owned by ANC benefactor Batho Batho Trust, which, according to declarations made to the Electoral Commission of SA, has donated R60m to the ANC since 2021.
Batho Batho Trust was founded by ANC leaders in 1992.
HCI is majority-owned by the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu), an affiliate of Cosatu, which is in alliance with the ANC.
HCI is run by trade unionist turned-businessman Johnny Copelyn, who donated to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign for the ANC presidency. Former minister of trade, industry & competition Ebrahim Patel is a former Sactwu secretary-general.
Patel presided over much of the tender process until he left office a year ago.
HCI subsidiary Vukani Gaming is already a big player in the casino space.
Business Day revealed last year that a former senior employee of Vukani Gaming, Anne-Marie Pooley, is part of the team assembled by the commission to adjudicate on the hotly contested tender.
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