Minister Must Commit to a Firm Date for New Lottery Licence, Says Bidder

Wina Njalo, which is bidding for the new Lottery licence, says the Minister of Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition has failed to commit to a firm date for the award of the lucrative licence.

• Wina Njalo, an initiative of the HCI Foundation, which is bidding for the new Lottery licence, says the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition has failed to commit to a date.
• Minister Parks Tau recently announced a “target date” for the announcement of the winning bidder – 28 May.
• The licence of the current operator, Ithuba, expires on 31 May.
• Wina Njalo wants the date to be made an order by the Pretoria High Court.
• But the minister’s lawyers had said he could not do so.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau has failed to commit to a date for awarding the new licence to operate the national lottery, says Wina Njalo, which is bidding for the new lottery licence.

Wina Njalo, an initiative of the HCI Foundation, has launched court action against Tau in which it is seeking to compel him to award the fourth licence.

Tau recently announced a “target date” for the announcement of the winning bidder – 28 May. Wina Njalo wants this to be made an order by the Pretoria High Court.

CEO Dawid Benjamin Muller said in an affidavit filed this week that the minister should have had no difficulty in agreeing to an order of the court to “unequivocally reflect his stated commitment” to award and conclude the fourth licence before 31 May when the licence of the current operator, Ithuba, expires.

“However, the minister was not prepared to commit to this in a court order. This can only mean that his target date is not a genuine date by which the minister is prepared to make the decision,” Muller said.

This was misleading bidders, he said.

He said had the minister agreed to consent to the draft order sent to him, it would have averted the need for the urgent court hearing, set down for 22 April.

But the minister had refused to consent.

Instead, his attorneys had indicated instead that an extension of the validity period (for the third licence currently held by Ithuba) may still be necessary “if the process for the awarding of the fourth licence cannot be concluded, for whatever reason, by 31 May 2025”.

The lawyers said a temporary licence might also still be necessary even if the fourth licence was awarded on time, because the successful applicant might not be able to begin operations immediately.

They said the minister wished to “avoid a situation where there is no lottery in place”, and therefore could not consent to the draft order.

In its initial application, Wina Njalo claimed that Tau was frustrating the process in order to “advance the interests of the present licence holder”, Ithuba, because only Ithuba, given its infrastructure, could be awarded the temporary licence. Also, no other bidder would expend money on the required infrastructure on the basis that the licence would only be valid for a year.

Wina Njalo still seeks an order directing the minister to announce the successful bidder before 9 May and to negotiate and conclude the licence agreement no later than 31 May.

It also seeks an order setting aside a request for proposals for the temporary licence which it says is unconstitutional and unlawful.

The company said the delay in awarding the fourth licence, and the minister’s “irrational and unlawful” decision to extend the bid evaluation process by another year, and then to issue a new request for proposals for a 12-month “temporary licence”, were threatening the very existence of the national lottery.

Muller said the minister had to date failed to advance proper reasons for not awarding the fourth licence, despite being repeatedly asked to do so.

“He has also failed to put in place a revised timetable for the finalisation of the tender award, despite this being promised in writing by the National Lotteries Commissions (NLC) board seven months ago.”

Muller said in providing the record of his decision, the minister had not provided all the documents — including the evaluation and adjudication documents prepared by the NLC, documentation related to an independent audit of the bidders, and documentation where the minister consulted with the NLC on the award of the licence.

There was also “not a single document” regarding the minister’s consultation with the National Treasury, to which he had referred in a media statement in December 2024.

Muller said the decision not to award the licence yet, the decision to extend the bidding process and the decision to offer a temporary licence were all unlawful.

He said the record showed that other bidders shared Wina Njalo’s concerns.

He said in December the NLC had seen the award of a temporary licence as “an inevitability”.

“This is an admission that it was the minister’s ongoing delay — not an unforeseeable or unavoidable event — that necessitated considering a new, unplanned temporary licence. It also confirms that the minister’s delay had been in the offing for two months.

“The lengthy, ongoing delay is important and telling. It is a significant period of time (almost four months). In the absence of an explanation from the minister, which has not been given, as to what he has been doing in that time, the inference becomes inevitable that the minister had wantonly delayed taking the licence decision and thus caused the delay which has eventuated to ensure that Ithuba’s extension became a foregone conclusion.”

He said the temporary licence would just be an unlawful extension of Ithuba’s current licence and the proposed invitation to the other bidders to participate in its award — unlawfully excluding others in what should have been an open process — was just to “soften their attitudes” to deter objections and legal challenges.

Muller said Wina Njalo would persist with the urgent application set down for 22 April.

The minister and the NLC have filed notices of intention to oppose the application. They have until 14 April to file affidavits.

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