NORTONS SUCCESSFULLY REPRESENTS THE WINA NJALO CONSORTIUM IN URGENT REVIEW PROCEEDINGS IN RELATION TO THE AWARDING OF THE 4TH NATIONAL LOTTERY LICENCE

Nortons 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. The current (third) National Lottery licence expires on 31 May 2025 and the Minister has not, as yet, announced the successful applicant for the operation of the fourth licence. A failure to do so would mean that as of 1 June 2025 there would be no licensed lottery operator, which would have a significant impact on the public, as well as the beneficiaries of the National Lottery funds.

Wina Njalo is a bidder for the fourth licence and sought to review the Minister’s failure to award and issue the fourth licence, as well as his decisions to extend the bid validity period for 12 months and to issue an RFP to operate a temporary licence.

The matter was heard as an urgent application by the North Gauteng High Court on 5 May 2025, and judgment was handed down on 21 May 2025. In addition to agreeing that the matter was urgent, the court declared the Minister’s failure to award and issue the fourth licence, as well as his decisions to extend the bid validity period and to issue the temporary licence RFP, to be unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid, and set them aside. The Minister was also ordered to determine the successful applicant and to negotiate a licence agreement by no later than 31 May 2025. The court 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. The court also ordered the Minister, the National Lotteries Commission and Ithuba Lottery to pay the costs of the Wina Njalo Consortium.

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