South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa consulted a legal team on Wednesday evening about the decision of the Pretoria High Court to set aside the awarding of the national lottery licence to Gidani, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
“The minister is considering the decision of the court and its implications. He will make a statement based on the advice he gets from the lawyers,” said Maseko at a briefing at Parliament.
A Cabinet statement noted the decision of the Pretoria High Court “regarding the processes followed in the awarding of the lottery licence”.
The South African Press Association (Sapa) reported on Monday that Judge Willie Seriti ruled that the process followed by the national lotteries board was flawed and set aside Mphalwa’s decision to award the lottery licence to Gidani. Seriti said the board had failed to investigate the shareholdings in the first preferred bidder Gidani and the second preferred bidder Uthingo, which currently runs the lottery.
That information was material for the minister to apply his mind properly under the Lotteries Act, he said.
The board’s failure to obtain information about the shareholders had resulted in Uthingo being recommended as the second preferred bidder despite Education Minister Naledi Pandor — “obviously” a political office bearer — having shares in a company with a stake in Uthingo.
Sapa reported the judge as saying this finding made it unnecessary to rule on legal argument that the winning Gidani consortium was also excluded because its shareholders included two members of the ANC national executive committee, Chris Nissen and Max Sisulu. ‒ I-Net Bridge