{"id":4532,"date":"2025-07-02T04:02:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=4532"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:52:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:52:54","slug":"parks-tau-speaks-out-on-lottery-operator-license-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/parks-tau-speaks-out-on-lottery-operator-license-row","title":{"rendered":"Parks Tau speaks out on lottery operator licence row"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The minister added that the bidding exercise was highly competitive due to the strong pool of applicants who demonstrated substantial financial capacity and expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

South Africa.- As the controversy surrounding the awarding of the lottery operator licence to Sizekhaya<\/a> rages, Minister of Trade and Industry, Parks Tau<\/strong>, has expressed confidence in the decision-making process that led to the approval of Sizekhaya’s bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a meeting with the portfolio committee on Tuesday, June 24<\/strong>, Tau outlined the multi-step appointment process involved in selecting the national lotteries operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tau said: “When I became minister last year, I inherited the process of awarding this fourth national lotteries operator licence after extending Ithuba Holdings’ licence for two years. The request for proposals was issued, and we received eight applications. The evaluation committee is currently working on the evaluation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tau noted that these steps were essential for maintaining necessary checks and balances. He also said that fairness and transparency were key priorities at every stage of the licensing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister added that the bidding exercise was highly competitive due to the strong pool of applicants who demonstrated substantial financial capacity and expertise. According to the minister, these factors made the licence awarding process challenging and delayed the winner’s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: “I accept the delay was unfortunate. However, I was confronted with the choice to rush the decision or conduct further investigations. I chose the latter to ensure I fulfilled my duty in accordance with the law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tau assured the country that he had made an informed decision and affirmed his adherence to the Lotteries Act.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> SIU seizes luxury property linked to lottery grants<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The minister added that the bidding exercise was highly competitive due to the strong pool of applicants who demonstrated substantial financial capacity and expertise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":4534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"South Africa's Minister of Trade and Industry, Parks Tau, has defended the controversial awarding of the national lottery operator licence to Sizekhaya, citing a highly competitive bidding process, substantial financial capacity, and expertise among applicants. Despite delays, Tau affirmed adherence to the Lotteries Act, emphasizing fairness and transparency in the multi-step appointment process.","focusai_entities":"Sizekhaya, Parks Tau, Ithuba Holdings, Minister of Trade and Industry, portfolio committee","focusai_location":"South Africa","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Ithuba Holdings?","query":"What are the specific implications for Ithuba Holdings' operational continuity and market share following the non-renewal of their national lottery licence and the awarding to Sizekhaya?"},{"label":"Regulatory Due Diligence?","query":"Given the controversy, what specific enhanced due diligence or governance frameworks were applied to ensure the integrity and transparency of the Sizekhaya licence award process?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60023,60011],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-4532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-africa","tag-lottery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4663,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions\/4663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}