Lotto ties 'just gossip'

MASHATILE: 'GETS NO DIRECT FINANCIAL GAIN FROM NEW CONSORTIUM'

- Tania Broughton

NO LINKS. Deputy President Paul Mashatile has no direct or indirect financial interest in Sizekhaya, Minister of Trade and Industry Parks Tau says in his affidavit. Picture: Getty Images

(Getty Images)

Suggestions that Deputy President Paul Mashatile has “political connections” with lottery licence winning bidder Sizekhaya are just “gossip and conspiracy theories”, the consortium says.

And losing bidder Ithuba Lottery “is well aware that nothing in these reports establishes any breach of the Lotteries Act or the requirements of the [licence] request for proposals”, Sizekhaya attorney Rishaban Moodley says in an affidavit.

Sizekhaya is opposing a bid by Ithuba Lottery to interdict the implementation of the licence, pending a judicial review in which it wants the decision by Minister of Trade and Industry Parks Tau to be set aside.

The interdict application, based on what Ithuba Lottery says were glaring irregularities in the adjudication process, has been set down for argument in the High Court in Pretoria from Tuesday next week.