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And the Next Lottery Operator Is…

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And the Next Lottery Operator Is…:

Sizekhaya Holdings has been announced as the next Lottery licence holder.

Sizekhaya Holdings, a consortium partly owned by gambling company Goldrush, has been announced by Minister Parks Tau as the next operator of the Lottery.

The Lottery is currently operated by Ithuba Holdings, whose licence expires on 31 May. Due to delays in announcing the successful bidder, a temporary licence awarded to Ithuba Lottery, a sister company of Ithuba Holdings, will kick in on 1 June. Thereafter, Sizekhaya is expected to take over for a period of eight years.

But there is still uncertainty over when Sizekhaya’s licence will start. The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has launched an urgent application to change an order by the high court in Johannesburg limiting the duration of the temporary licence to five months.

The NLC says that unless the order is changed to allow the temporary licence to remain valid for a full year, Lottery sales will stop on Sunday, 1 June. Otherwise, it will not be financially feasible for Ithuba Lottery. Sizekhaya needs at least nine months to prepare before it can take over the Lottery.

The licence has been the subject of extensive litigation in the Gauteng High Court, initiated by one of the bidders, Wina Njalo.

Wina Njalo claimed that Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau had favoured Ithuba by delaying the announcement and deciding to issue a temporary licence. Only Ithuba had the infrastructure in place to qualify for the temporary licence, Wina Njalo argued.

Ithuba Holdings’ licence has previously been extended for two years, making it ineligible under the Lotteries Act to receive another licence. But a separate entity, Ithuba Lottery, which shares directors with Ithuba Holdings, did bid on the licence.

Last week, Judge Sulet Potterill ruled that Tau must announce the bidder by 28 May, and that the decision to issue a temporary licence was unconstitutional. But to prevent lottery ticket sales from grinding to a halt, Potterill suspended her order for five months, enabling the the temporary licence to be awarded for that period.

“It is most unfortunate that this matter has already become the subject of litigation and a judgment of the high court,” said Tau in a statement on Wednesday. “I am seeking legal advice with a view to appealing against the judgment’s findings and orders … With due respect to to the [court], my announcement [of the lottery licence holder] is the result of my undertaking made to the bidders and the court before the hearing of the application.”

Tau did not announce a reserve bidder, meaning there is no backup if the deal with Goldrush falls through.

GroundUp previously reported that Sizekhaya’s leading bid has raised controversy, with parliamentarians from the EFF and BOSA questioning how the bid was awarded.

Sizekhaya is led by KwaZulu-Natal businessmen Moses Tembe and Sandile Zungu, who is the owner of AmaZulu Football Club. Zungu ran for the ANC KwaZulu-Natal chair position in 2022 before dropping out.

Sizekhaya’s tech partner is Genlot, which operates the Chinese lottery — the second biggest in the world. Based in Shenzhen in China, Genlot is involved in several other lotteries around the world, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Brazil and Jamaica. The company has an annual turnover of $ 60-billion in “sales processed” and has a 19% “global market share”, according to its website.

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Ponte City: Transformation

As the “white flight” of the 1980s and 90s drained the inner city of capital, Ponte City underwent a dramatic and terrifying transformation. By the late 1990s, the building had become a “vertical slum” and a symbol of urban decay. It was famously “hijacked” by gangs; the retail levels were stripped, and the building became a fortress for drug dealing and human trafficking. The most haunting image from this era was the central core. Originally designed to be a light-filled courtyard, it became a literal trash heap. Residents on the upper floors would throw their refuse into the center of the building rather than taking it down. At its worst point, the trash in the core reached five stories high—a mountain of rotting debris, discarded furniture, and even, legend has it, the remains of those who had fallen or jumped.

During this period, the reputation of Ponte was so toxic that there was a serious proposal in 1998 to turn the entire skyscraper into a vertical prison. The plan was eventually scrapped, but the building remained a “no-go zone” for nearly a decade. The turnaround began in the mid-2000s when developers New Metro Property Group and later Dlala Nje began a massive, painstaking refurbishment. They cleared out the tons of trash from the core, restored the lifts (which had often been out of order, forcing residents to climb 50 flights of stairs), and implemented strict security protocols.