Tafa Pulls Out An Ace
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday November 30, 2020 17:18
Ithuba, amongst others, allege that Grow Mine had plagiarised their bid during a security lapse at the Authority’s ICT system, VDR.
However, in their responding papers, Grow Mine, represented by Parks Tafa, turned the tables instead, accusing the South African company of plagiarising Grow Mine’s technical partner’s blueprint who happens to be Ithuba’s technical partner in South Africa, but not in Botswana.
Tafa, in papers filed end of last week said Ithuba instead has a lot of explaining to do, as to how, without a technical partner, were able to put together their bid since on their own Ithuba do not have the capacity to be a lottery operator.
Tafa further said on the other hand the technical bid submitted by Grow Mine was an original bid that arose from the exclusive partnership between it and IGT in Botswana.
“On that premise, it is more likely than not, that, if any plagiarism occurred, Ithuba is the real perpetrator and in that regard, it has no intellectual property rights to protect or preserve.”
Grow Mine also accuses Ithuba of completely over-dramatising the allegations of plagiarism with most facts left out, so that a misleading picture is presented.
“On its own, Ithuba does not possess the requisite technical capability needed to successfully run and administer a national lottery business of any kind; it follows therefore that without IGT in Botswana, it has no intellectual property capable of being stolen or capable of being plagiarised.”
“On the technical submission to the Gambling Authority, the only common link or element between Ithuba and Grow Mine, could only be the IGT intellectual property because Ithuba has access to it through the South African national lottery licence”.
“Accordingly, it is not impossible through circumstantial evidence to arrive at a logical answer to deduce and or understand who is the real perpetrator of the alleged plagiarism; it is clearly Ithuba,” Tafa blasted.
Grow Mine further accuses Ithuba of bully tactics to take advantage of the Gambling Authority’s transparency during the de-briefing exercise to subject the Authority to bullying and intimidation, going as far as demanding to be furnished with a copy of Grow Mine’s bid, which is a confidential document.
“Ithuba appears to give the impression that it has no regards for the rule of law as applicable in Botswana, to the extent that it is at ease and will brazenly demand details of Grow Mine’s bid submission to the Gambling Authority without a concern about the unlawfulness of its conduct, in light of the restrictions contained in section 20 of the Gambling Act and at common law, prohibitions, which prevent such disclosures of commercially sensitive and confidential information belonging to a third party, the release of which would also compromise fair competition between potential bidders and would favour and promote collusion.”