Dear Editor
Minister Parks Tau’s decision to sideline one ANC-linked bid for the lotto licence due to conflict-of-interest concerns, only to award it to another bid linked to the Deputy President’s family, raises far more questions than answers.
The DA will continue to seek answers on this clearly flawed process through our PAIA application and by ensuring the Minister accounts to Parliament.
It is extremely concerning that the National Lotteries Commission’s (NLC) evaluation and adjudication committees both failed to flag the glaring conflict of interest of their top candidate for the award of the lotto licence, Ringeta.
The conflict of interest in awarding one of the state’s largest tenders to a bidder part-owned by an ANC funding vehicle with a sitting ANC MP on its board of trustees is patently obvious.
No wonder, then, that Sizekhaya Holdings’ conflicts were news to the NLC.
It is equally worrying that the Minister’s quality assurance committee, which identified Ringeta’s clear association with the ANC, didn’t do the same for Sizekhaya Holdings. When he appeared before the Portfolio Committee in June, Minister Tau admitted he was unaware of the association between Sizekhaya and the Deputy Preisdent’s sister-in-law.
The obvious question arises: why not?
Did the quality assurance committee miss this connection? Or did it know, and not tell the Minister?
In either case, serious doubt is cast over the validity of the quality assurance process.
The DA has been clear from the start: Tau must launch an independent investigation into the bidding process and the conflict of interest that arises from Mashatile’s family owning part of the winning bidder.
Instead, he has put the same National Lotteries Commission that dropped the ball before in charge of the investigation.
The DA won’t rely on the NLC to do what it failed to in the adjudication process, and will continue to demand full transparency over the entire bid process.
Regards
Toby Chance MP
DA Spokesperson on Trade, Industry and Competition