An application by losing national lottery bidder Igwija Gaming to force the Lotteries Board to supply detailed information on other bidders was premature, a Pretoria judge ruled on Monday.
Judge Francis Legodi said it is a well-known fact that there is no national lottery running at the moment and it would be prudent not to deal with Igwija’s application at this stage, before a fresh decision is made by the Lotteries Board and Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa. He postponed the application indefinitely.
He said if Igwija were to be chosen as a preferred bidder, the application might be an exercise in futility.
Furthermore, an untenable situation could arise where one of the bidders could get access to the other bid documents before the licence was awarded and could then look into the other bids, make an adjustment to its own documents and thus bring about an unfair advantage.
Another judge, Willie Seriti, on March 5 set aside the awarding of the licence to newcomer Gidani following an application by lottery operator Uthingo.
Uthingo cited the involvement of African National Congress national executive committee members as shareholders of Gidani among its reasons, but it was Education Minister Naledi Pandor’s shares in Black Management Forum Investment (a 10% shareholder in Uthingo) that partly resulted in the awarding of the licence being set aside.
The lottery has been suspended since the end of March, when Uthingo’s licence expired, but Mpahlwa has not yet set a date when the licence will be awarded again, saying the Lotteries Board needs more time to investigate.
Uthingo and the Lotteries Board insisted Igwija’s application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act was academic and premature, but Igwija said it needed the information to protect its rights in case it wanted to launch a legal challenge in future. — Sapa