South African lottery operator misses sales forecast

Speaking to the Parliamentary Trade, Industry and Competition Committee, South African Trade Minister Parks Tau said he has not yet decided whether to appeal the court ruling that set aside his decision to grant Sizekhaya Holdings the national lottery licence. Tau appeared before the committee on 10 November, eight days after the ruling was issued. The minister said the matter is being reviewed within the ministry and that the way forward will be determined by taking the court's decisions into account.

The National Lotteries Commission, the lottery regulator, said in the same session that Sizekhaya's performance was below expectations. The commission's chief executive, Tintswalo Nkuna, said the company's bid had projected ticket sales of about 3.5 billion rand, while actual sales were 2.1 billion rand. Nkuna said this figure was 39 percent lower than the bid. Sales also fell 21.7 percent short of the revised forecast. Nkuna added that players had been cautious toward a new operator, so a decline had been expected.

Sizekhaya took over the lottery on 1 June 2026 from Ithuba Holdings, which had run it for 11 years. The case was brought by Ithuba Lottery and Ringeta Consortium, which lost the tender. The tender evaluation committee had ranked Ringeta first with 73.92 points, while Sizekhaya was close behind with 72.95 points. The commission's board committee had also recommended Ringeta.

Tau later set up a ministerial committee to re-evaluate the bids, and this committee recommended Sizekhaya. Judge Norman Davis found that the committee ran a "parallel process" in which it re-scored the bids outside the tender rules. The judge also noted that Tau's reasons often followed the ministerial committee's recommendations word for word. Davis accepted that Tau acted in good faith but found the establishment and use of the committee unlawful and procedurally unfair. The court also rejected Ithuba's claim that Sizekhaya's financing had not been fully committed when it won the licence. The ruling does not rule out Sizekhaya regaining the licence.