South African Minister Faces Accusations of Favoritism in Lottery Licence Bid
Ithuba has been the country’s national lottery operator since 2015
South Africa.- A lawsuit has been filed against Park Tau, the South African minister of trade, industry, and competition, for allegedly stalling the awarding of the fourth national lottery licence to favour the current holder, Ithuba.
The legal action was initiated in the Pretoria high court by Wina Njalo, a Hosken Consolidated Investments subsidiary formed to bid on and operate the national lottery. It accused the minister of using his position to frustrate the national lottery licensing process to advance Ithuba’s interests.
The suit follows Tau’s decision to postpone the deadline for a new national lottery operator. In February 2025, the minister announced that the “bid validity period” for the lottery and sports pools licence will be extended until May 31, 2026. This has raised questions about the continuity of ticket sales since Ithuba’s current licence ends on May 31, 2025.
However, earlier this month, Tau reportedly invited bids for a temporary one-year licence to operate the national lottery from May 31, when the current licence expires.
Notably, this marks the second time that the announcement of the successful bidder for the lottery licence has been postponed. The first delay happened in July 2022, when Pau’s predecessor, Ebrahim Patel, extended Ithuba’s licence by two years.
Now, Wina Njalo warns that the delayed awarding of the licence, the minister’s extension of the bid evaluation, and the new request for a temporary licence are jeopardising the national lottery’s survival.
The company is seeking a court order that will compel the minister to announce the successful bidder by May 9 and complete the licence agreement by May 31. It also wants the court to declare the request for proposals for the temporary licence as unconstitutional and unlawful, and set it aside.
The court has scheduled the hearing for April 22, while the respondents have until April 11 to respond with opposing affidavits.
Wina Njalo CEO Dawid Benjamin Muller said: “We bring this application in our interest and in the public interest to safeguard the lottery, which is a revenue generation mechanism which plays a critical role in depositing billions of rands to sustain good causes.”
Muller also added that the temporary licence request for proposals is structured in a way that makes it highly unlikely for any new operator, aside from Ithuba, to fulfil the necessary criteria and financial requirements within the given timeframe.
He said: “Ithuba has a significant and field-destroying advantage in preparing the temporary licence application. For Ithuba, continuing with what it designed in 2013 and implemented over the past 10 years will be a relatively straightforward task. The same is not true for any other bidder.”
Ithuba Holdings initially secured approval to operate the National Lottery in 2015. The five-year license is valued at R180bn (€9.058bn, $9.8 bn).
