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Still no Lotto in sight
10/05/2007 14:11 - (SA)
Cape Town - There is still no clarity on when the national lottery, suspended since the end of March, will be up and running.
At a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa declined to elaborate on the issue.
He repeated his earlier statement, made a week ago, that he would be able to give a more "definitive indication" on this at the end of May.
"That position stands there's really nothing more to say on the lottery (at this stage)," he said.
Last Thursday, Mpahlwa said the National Lotteries Board had approached him during the course of April and asked for more time to ensure a complete and thorough process in completing "the work that I had asked them to do".
The board had told him more time was needed to decide who would get the new lottery licence, following "delayed submissions" of necessary information by some of the bidders.
'Extreme pressure'
Mpahlwa said once the board had submitted its recommendation on the new operator to him, he would require some time to properly consider it.
Lottery board members had been placed under "extreme pressure" to finalise the process, and the bidders given until the third week of this month to provide all the outstanding information required.
Payments to "good causes and ticket holders" would be unaffected during this period.
Mpahlwa suspended the Lotto on March 31, hours before the Uthingo licence to run it expired.
The suspension came after the Pretoria High Court reversed the awarding of the new lottery licence to the Gidani consortium on March 5, saying the process had been flawed.
- SAPA
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