The National Lottery, suspended since the end of March, will not be back up and running before May 31, and how long it will take to get started again after this date, remains an unanswered question.
Briefing the media in Pretoria on Thursday, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said he would be able to give a more ”definitive indication” on this at the end of May.
”The National Lotteries Board had approached me during the course of April … and stated that, in order to ensure a complete and thorough process, they would require additional time to complete the work that I had asked them to do,” he said.
The board had told him more time was needed to decide who would get the new lottery licence, following ”delayed submissions” of necessary information by some of the bidders.
Mpahlwa said once the board had submitted its recommendation on the new operator to him, ”I will require some time to properly consider it”.
”In the event that I accept the board’s recommendation, I will then need to give them time to negotiate the licence agreement with the selected bidder, where they would have to submit the licence to me for consideration and, if satisfied, I will sign and issue the licence to the successful bidder.
”I continue to be mindful of the great interest of the public in the national lottery and regret its temporary suspension,” he said.
Lottery board members had been placed under ”extreme pressure” to finalise the process, and the bidders given until the third week of this month [May] to provide all the outstanding information required.
Payments to ”good causes and ticket holders” would be unaffected during this period.
Mpahlwa suspended the Lotto on March 31, hours before the Uthingo licence to run it expired.
The suspension came after the Pretoria High Court reversed the awarding of the new lottery licence to the Gidani consortium on March 5, saying the process had been flawed. — Sapa