Grow Mine, a consortium that was initially picked as the preferred partner for the lottery before being booted out by the Gambling Authority, had appealed to Mmusi Kgafela.
However in March, Kgafela ruled that he did not have jurisdiction to hear or determine the appeal. The move has not been received well by Grow Mine which has filed papers seeking the High Court’s intervention in the long-running matter.
According to documents revealed to BusinessWeek, Grow Mine directors believe that the minister’s decision is reviewable on the grounds that he failed to adequately apply his mind to the previous rulings delivered by both the High Court and the Court of Appeal “involving the same factual background, issues, and parties”.
“Accordingly the minister acted both irrationally and unreasonably,” read documents lodged in the High Court this week by Grow Mine’s lawyers, Collins Newman & Co.
According to the filings, Grow Mine wants the High Court to set aside Kgafela’s ruling that he does not have jurisdiction to determine the matter. Alternatively, Grow Mine wants the High Court to set aside the Gambling Authority’s decision to terminate the consortium’s status as the preferred bidder.
Grow Mine, which consists of high-profile local businesspeople and corporate entities, was initially awarded the 10-year licence to operate the country’s first national lottery in June last year. However, the Gambling Authority revoked Grow Mine’s status as the preferred bidder noting that negotiations around the lottery had proved unsuccessful.
Specifically, the Gambling Authority found that Grow Mine could not prove the financial muscle required to kickstart the lottery. The consortium suffered internal battles which resulted in a key shareholder, Sefalana Holdings, pulling out its support.
Insiders close to the latest developments told BusinessWeek previously that matters ground to a halt when Grow Mine was due to make a P10 million upfront payment to the authority in order to kickstart the lottery.
The upfront payment would have been used as security to pay for the jackpot prizes in case the licence holder failed to raise sufficient money through ticket sales.
The latest legal filings suggest the Authority may not stick to its plan to kick the national lottery off by March next year, adding more delays to a protracted process that has dragged on since 2017.
