The Lottery and its discontents

Here are articles on who plays the South African Lottery, how the Lottery money is distributed, and dodgy dealings by the National Lotteries Commission and its recipients.

SIU investigation into lottery corruption hamstrung by red tape

Application made 15 months ago for permission to investigate dodgy procurement deals

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News | 22 July 2025

Mystery of R3-million in Lottery funds paid to Athletics South Africa

ASA says it was unaware of the payment

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News | 18 July 2025

How Lottery looters hijacked a GBV organisation

R18-million, awarded to the Make Me Movement, was stolen

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News | 15 July 2025

Ithuba challenges Lottery licence award

This is the second court case brought against Minister Parks Tau for awarding the licence to Sizekhaya Holdings

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Law | 14 July 2025

Minister appoints ten new lottery grant assessors after year-long delay

NLC says applications backlog has been cleared and future applications will be assessed within 150 days

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Brief | 7 July 2025

R10-million emergency lottery funding for flood-ravaged Eastern Cape

The money was approved swiftly using a new funding mechanism that replaced one that had been mired in corruption

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Brief | 29 June 2025

Lottery licence evaluators had no lottery experience

Audit firms refused to get involved because of “reputational risk”

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News | 26 June 2025

Alarm raised over plans for state-run lottery

Since its inception, a private company has been responsible for operating the lottery and selling tickets. That is set to change in 2034

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News | 20 June 2025

Court battle looms over lottery licence

Losing bidder Lekalinga has launched a court application to probe Minister Parks Tau’s decision to award the fourth lottery licence to Sizekhaya Holdings

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Law | 12 June 2025