NORTONS SUCCESSFULLY REPRESENTS THE WINA NJALO CONSORTIUM IN A SECOND ROUND OF URGENT LITIGATION IN RELATION TO THE AWARDING OF THE 4TH NATIONAL LOTTERY LICENCE

In a post last week, we mentioned that Nortons had successfully represented the Wina Njalo Consortium in an urgent review of a number of decisions by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition in relation to the awarding of the fourth National Lottery licence.

On 21 May 2025, the High Court declared the Minister’s failure to award and issue the fourth lottery licence, as well as his decisions to extend the bid validity period and to issue a temporary licence RFP, to be unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid, and set them aside, and suspended the order of invalidity in relation to the issuing of the temporary RFP for a period of 5 months to allow the fourth licensee time to take over the operation of the lottery. 

This week, the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) launched an urgent application to vary the time period of the suspension of the order of invalidity from 5 months to 12 months, arguing that there were new facts since the date of the order - that Ithuba Lottery was not prepared to conclude a 5 month temporary contract, and that Sizekhaya (the successful bidder for the 4th licence) had indicated that it required 9 months to take over the operations.

Wina Njalo argued that the NLC was seeking to re-litigate the issues that served before the court in the previous litigation, that the NLC was seeking final relief in proceedings brought under extreme urgency, denying Wina Njalo a proper opportunity to make out a case, that Ithuba Lottery had presented evidence to the court in relation to the suspension period, and that there was no evidence justifying the extraordinary relief sought.

The matter was argued on 29 May 2025 and, in a judgment handed down on 30 May, Judge Mooki dismissed the application, saying inter alia that there was no substantive evidence that Ithuba Lottery would suffer the losses alleged if it were not granted a temporary licence of at least 12 months, and that the terms of the RFP stated that the successful bidder ought to be able to take over the lottery operation within a period of 5 to 6 months. The court also held that there was no support for the NLC’s contention in this regard, nor was there any evidence for the suggestion that Sizekhaya would require a 9 month period to take over the operation of the lottery.

Nortons Team: Anthony Norton, Anton Roets, Michelle Rawlinson, Matthew Robertson Alexandra Harris