The Editor

The Star

6 February 2008

Dear Sir,

WINIKHAYA ORDERED TO CLOSE SHOP

Your reader’s SMS comments in The Star of today have reference.

Firstly, the National Lotteries Board is concerned that their issued press release was not worthy of coverage in your publication. The press release detailed the issues behind closing down of the illegal WiniKhaya competition.

Through SMS, your readers highlighted their concerns about the WiniKhaya competition being stopped. The National Lotteries Board would like to stress that no one is allowed to use illegal methods to raise funds for good causes. This is non-negotiable. Further charities can themselves run competitions to raise funds for themselves within a regulated environment and with approval from the National Lotteries Board, the regulator of all lotteries in South Africa. When competitions are not regulated, no one knows what the income is and the actual amount that goes to the intended beneficiaries and what amounts go to the pockets of the organisers. When funds are raised for charity, the bulk of the income should go to the charity.

Recent reports indicate that WiniKhaya claims that they have donated R13 million to charity organisations since they began in 2003. WiniKhaya has identified only 4 of their beneficiaries. Your readers claim that the National Lottery has not been distributing funds. We would like to point out that since 2001, the National Lottery has allocated more than R6 billion to more than 10 000 beneficiaries. Information of all National Lottery beneficiaries can be found in the Annual Reports of the Board at www.nlb.org.za

Yours faithfully

NATIONAL LOTTERIES BOARD

Sershan T Naidoo

Spokesperson