Sefalana MD Unmasks Lotto Rival As A Front

Staff Writer | Monday November 30, 2020 17:18

 

Sefalana MD Unmasks Lotto Rival As A Front

However, Chauhan says the Gambling Authority came close to describing Ithuba’s citizenship composition as fronting, saying the subterfuge of using two citizens of Botswana to window dress, devoid of any real intention to transfer ownership is a prohibited practice in procurement proceedings in the country.

He gave as an example a Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) law stating that a contractor shall not be involved in fronting, tokenism, window-dressing and rent a Motswana practice in any form of public procurement.

“The terms fronting, tokenism, window-dressing and rent a Motswana mean the misrepresentation of a material fact of the ownership, management and control of contractor in order to appear compliant with citizen reservation and citizen preferential treatment and for material gain, advancement or advantage in the procurement process,” he said.

Chauhan added it was not surprising that the Gambling Authority had profound concerns that Ithuba Solutions’ local Batswana partners did not come across as fully engaged partners creating the impression Ithuba Solution is controlled by its South African majority shareholder.

“This did not come as a surprise and was to be expected, having regard to the fact that Ithuba’s South African majority shareholder owns such a commanding effective controlling interest of 87.5% shareholding in the Botswana registered subsidiary of Ithuba.”

Chauhan said Ithuba’s local Botswana partners, through a company called Flameback, only own a combined shareholding of 12.5%, which is an effective 6.25% each of beneficial interest, which could raise perceptions of fronting, window-dressing, tokenism, which is prohibited in the code of conduct for contractors (PPADB), and raised by the Gambling Authority as a major concern.

Chauhan said on the other hand his company is 100% citizen-owned.

He added the largest shareholder, a publicly listed company whose shareholding consist of 46% public officers’ pension fund, means that indirectly the largest shareholder in Grow Mine Africa is the public officers pension fund, which represents the interests of P150,000 active public officers and pensioners, as well as Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund and Debswana, amongst others.