Note to Editors: Please see attached soundbite by Toby Chance MP
The DA has written to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry & Competition, Mzwandile Masina, demanding that Minister Parks Tau and the National Lotteries Commission chairperson, Barney Pityana, appear before the Committee to account for the opaque manner of the appointment Sizekhaya Holdings as the new Lottery licence holder as well as Ithuba Holdings as the temporary operator.
This is after the CEO of Ithuba Holdings, Charmaine Mabuza, wrote to Masina and the Committee Members to “clarity several misconceptions emerging in the Lottery licence process.
In May 2025, two courts found that Tau had acted unlawfully in appointing a temporary licence holder and was accused in court papers of favouring Ithuba as the only company reasonably able to run the lotto before the new operator took over.
There are reports that many of the Lotto’s 17 000 ticket machines are not operational, due to technical problems emanating from a switch of systems.
It is unacceptable that the Lotto operator, Ithuba Holdings, should find it necessary to write to the portfolio committee to set the record straight on matters that Minister Tau himself should have come clean on months ag