The article in the Business day of 14 May 2007 has reference.

There are inaccuracies with respect to the income and the beneficiaries which we would like to clarify.

The National Lotteries Board and the department of Trade and Industry have stated that there were grounds to appeal the judgement to set aside the Licence to operate the National Lottery and that the process of appeal was not pursued, as it was believed that this would result in unnecessary and much longer delays.

As was the case in the awarding of the first licence to Uthingo Management in 1999, the Board had initially undertaken to investigate the shareholding and probity of only the preferred bidder, Gidani.  However, as a result of the court ruling of 5 March 2007, the National Lotteries Board was now required to conduct further investigative work. The complexity and extent of investigating whether shareholders and shareholders of shareholders of ALL bidding consortia are ‘political office bearers’ and whether they are ‘fit and proper’ made it impossible to conclude this work in time for the Minister to issue a licence before 31 March 2007, base don’t he ruling of 5 March 2007. This together with the fact that there was no legal basis to extend the licence held by Uthingo Management or to issue a temporary licence to anyone to conduct the National Lottery caused the temporary discontinuity in the operation of the Lottery.

It is anticipated that the National Lottery would resume in the middle of June 2007. This would mean that South Africa would have been without a National Lottery for 11 weeks.

Ticket sales, based on figures for the 2006 financial year, reflect that ticket sales are R85 million per week. This money is not collected by the National Lotteries Board, as implied by your writer. 

In terms of the Licence to operate the National Lottery, only funds earmarked for good causes are transferred to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) on a weekly basis. The average transfer to the NLDTF in the 2006 financial year has been R23 million. This amount is earmarked for the charities, arts and sports sectors in terms of a directive from the Minister of Trade and Industry and based on the recommendation of the Board. Therefore to say that ‘charities got R23m a week from the Lotto’ is incorrect.  Further, the amount allocated to NGOs that apply for funding is dependent on the applications received by the NLDTF and the applicants meeting the prescribed requirements.

We have also maintained that there is a reserve fund from which allocations in the coming year will be made. Once the new licence has been finalised, we would make public the anticipated contribution to the NLDTF based on the proposal of the new Licensee. Only at this stage we will be in a position to determine the ‘loss’, if any, to good causes.

The National Lotteries Board will continue to do everything in its power to ensure that the National Lottery resumes as soon as possible and that it fulfils its mandate in terms of the Lotteries Act.