Gidani's application for leave to appeal in lottery case dismissed

20 September 2016 - 20:07 By Ernest Mabuza

The high court in Pretoria on Tuesday dismissed the application by Gidani for leave to appeal against the judgment which sought to set aside the awarding of a lottery licence to Ithuba. Pretoria High Court Judge Billy Mothle refused Gidani an opportunity to appeal against the judgment he had passed in May‚ when he found that the awarding of the lottery licence to Ithuba by Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies was lawful. Gidani was the second lottery operator from 2007 until its agreement with the Department of Trade and Industry ended in 2014. Since the minister awarded the third lottery licence to Ithuba for a period of seven years in November 2014‚ Gidani had been to court several times challenging a number of aspects relating to the awarding of the licence. Gidani launched an urgent application to prevent the conclusion of a licence agreement between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Ithuba and the implementation of the licence agreement. The court dismissed Gidani’s urgent application in December 2014. In May 2015‚ Gidani asked the court to review and set aside the decision of the Minister to select Ithuba as the preferred applicant. In a judgment in July 2015‚ Judge Neil Tuchten set aside the award of the licence to Ithuba but remitted the awarding of the licence to the minister for reconsideration. After the judgment‚ the minister issued the licence to Ithuba again‚ which prompted Gidani to launch the review of the minister’s second decision. The review application was heard this year and Judge Mothle dismissed Gidani’s application in May. The application by Gidani for leave to appeal against the May decision was dismissed on Tuesday. “The minister is confident that now that the process has been finalised‚ Ithuba will continue with its plans to operate and invigorate the National Lottery and ensure continued contributions to good causes‚” DTI spokesman Sidwell Medupe said in a statement...

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