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GA advances lottery talks despite looming legal challenge

Long awaited: The national lottery has been held up due to legal wrangling
Long awaited: The national lottery has been held up due to legal wrangling

The Gambling Authority (GA) is pressing on with talks with Ithuba Botswana for the country’s long-awaited lottery licence, despite a looming legal challenge from sidelined bidder, GrowMine.

BusinessWeek is informed that the authority expects to present a draft licence to its board soon, a key step in kicking off the lottery eagerly awaited by Batswana.

Ithuba Botswana, a subsidiary of a well-known pan-African group Ithuba Holdings, was the reserve bidder of the national lottery licence, which was originally scooped by GrowMine, a local consortium of businesses and businesspeople.

Editor's Comment
Get back what was stolen, and lock the door

That a single private law firm pocketed P6.5 million for just four cases, out of a total P11.1 million paid for 25 matters, reeks of a system that was not merely disorganised but open to abuse.Bayford has taken a welcome first step by telling the Public Accounts Committee the truth. Now he must act decisively to ensure it never happens again and that any money lost to wrongdoing is recovered.The figures are staggering. Whilst ordinary Batswana...

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