Claims of Political Links to Paul Mashatile Are Just “Gossip”, Winning Lottery Bidder Says

Suggestions based on media reports of political connections with Deputy President Paul Mashatile are just “gossip and conspiracy theories”, says winning Lottery licence bidder Sizekhaya.

• Winning Lottery licence bidder Sizekhaya says suggestions of political connections to Deputy President Paul Mashatile are just “gossip”
• Sizekhaya is opposing a court attempt by losing bidder Ithuba Lottery to set aside the award of the licence.
• Ithuba says the adjudication process was flawed.

Suggestions that Deputy President Paul Mashatile has “political connections” with lottery licence winning bidder Sizekhaya are just “gossip and conspiracy theories”, the consortium says.

And losing bidder Ithuba Lottery “is well aware that nothing in these reports establishes any breach of the Lotteries Act or the requirements of the [licence] Request for Proposals”, Sizekhaya attorney Rishaban Moodley says in an affidavit.

Sizekhaya is opposing a bid by Ithuba Lottery to interdict the implementation of the licence, pending a judicial review in which it wants the decision by Minister of Trade and Industry Park Tau to be set aside.

The interdict application, based on what Ithuba Lottery says were glaring irregularities in the adjudication process, has been set down for argument in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria from 28 to 30 October.

One of the issues flagged by Ithuba was alleged connections between the Sizekhaya consortium and Mashatile, based on media reports indicating that he has an indirect interest through his sister-in-law Khumo Bogatsu, who is a co-owner of Bellamont Gambling, a shareholder in the consortium.

Media reports also claimed that Sizekhaya chair Moses Tembe is a close associate of the deputy president and that consortium member Sandile Zungu is linked to him through the ANC.

In opposing affidavits, Minister Tau and the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) have confirmed that, following the media reports, an investigation into this is underway.

However, the Minister says in his opposing affidavit, this is not an admission that the process was flawed. He says Mashatile has no direct or indirect financial interest in Sizekhaya.

As with most of the affidavits filed by the parties in the application, vast parts are considered “confidential” and have been blacked out.

This week, GroundUp received a redacted version, shedding light on Sizekhaya’s submissions on the issue.

Sizekhaya says it is fully co-operating with the investigation ordered by the minister, which it understands is almost complete.

But it contends that the bid requirement that no political party or political office bearer has any “direct and/or indirect interest”, is at odds with the Lotteries Act, which only speaks of a direct interest and this is therefore “an obvious misquotation”.

“It appears from the record that, correctly, neither the NLC nor the minister’;s committee considered indirect financial interests and the applicants [for the licence] were not asked to provide information about any such interest,” Moodley said.

He said the purpose of the relevant section of the Act was to prevent political parties or office bearers from having control over the lottery licence and licensee.

“To give effect to this purpose in the licence application process, does not require an enquiry into indirect financial interests that do not entail a form of control such as, for example, where any political officer bearer owns shares in a unit trust that holds shares in one of the bidders for the licence,” Moodley said.

He said, however, that no political party or office bearer had any direct or indirect financial interest in Sizekhaya or any of its shareholders.

He said while Mashatile was married to Bogatsu’s twin sister, Bogatsu was not a political officer bearer and Mashatile had no financial, whether direct or indirect, in Bellamont Gaming.

“What the media articles insinuate is that Ms Bogatsu must have parlayed her family connection to the deputy president in order to get him to pull strings … she denies that she even discussed her role in Sizekhaya’s bid with her brother-in law.”

Tembe was also not a political office-bearer.

Due to his work with the KwaZulu-Natal Growth Coalition and Economic Council, Tembe interacted with politicians and officer bearers across the political spectrum, including Mashatile, Moodley said..

“He [Tembe] said he makes it a point to maintain friendly relations with politicians across the board. He has friendly relations with the deputy president and they have often met at functions and social gatherings. He has never discussed his involvement in Sizekhaya’s bid with the deputy president.”

Moodley said Zungu had once been nominated for the office of the chairman of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC. He had not accepted the nomination and he did not hold any office in the ANC and was not a political office-bearer.

He had no personal relationship with Mashatile, although he had interacted with him on occasion at official and social events.

He too had not discussed Sizekhaya’s bid with Mashatile.

Moodley said Sizekhaya had no “political party connections”, as Ithuba Lottery had claimed.

“The Lotteries Act does not require the minister to be satisfied that (bidders) have no political party connections in the vague and conspiratorial sense as alleged in the media articles before he may make a decision.

“The minister’s decision to investigate the allegations is, with respect, a sensible move to clear the air but has no bearing on the validity of his decision [to award the licence to Sizakhaya],” Moodley said.

He said the media reports were “irrelevant to any possible ground of review” and had only been included by Ithuba Lottery to “create an atmosphere of wrongdoing”.

Sizakhaya says Ithuba Lottery provided no legal basis for the interdict. It has asked that the application be struck from the urgent roll, or dismissed with costs.

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