National mockery
2003-08-17 21:18
Cape Town - The Lotto-playing public is being hoodwinked.
"It is a national disgrace," Mark Lowe, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on trade and industry, added on Sunday.
He was reacting to an answer to his parliamentary question that only 7.6%, R287m, of Lotto earnings were allocated to charity organisations last year.
During the same period, sales of Lotto tickets amounted to about R3.8bn.
Of this amount, R640m (17%) was spent on administration and about R1.9bn (49%) on prize money.
About R1bn (27%) was available to allocate to deserving organisations, but only R287m found its way to these institutions.
"It is a mere 7.6% of ticket sales and only 28% of the money that was available for this purpose," Lowe said.
"Given the poor financial state of many charities,
it is a national disgrace that the situation can continue in this way."
He said the fact that Lotto money was not distributed as was widely claimed, bordered on deceiving the Lotto-playing public.