Announcement: National Lottery Licence
Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Gambling Authority CEO: Thuli Johnson
This selection was, as indicated then, subject to the successful negotiation and conclusion of a Licence Agreement between the Authority and the Preferred Applicant. The Authority further indicated that, should negotiations with the Preferred Applicant fail, the Authority would commence negotiations with the Reserve Applicant. The Authority commenced negotiations with Growmine on the 19th of January 2021.
The Board of the Authority wishes to inform the nation, that negotiations with Growmine were unsuccessful and consequently the status of Growmine as the Preferred Applicant has been revoked. The failure of the negotiations is as a result of Growmine’s failure to satisfy the Authority on a key, non-negotiable requirement as per the Request for Applications (RFA) for the licence to operate the National Lottery as well as a key undertaking made in their application and in presentations to the Evaluation Committee.
When the news broke, a fierce debate ensued. While some members of the public believe that the law should take its cause, there is a section of the population that believes the move to detain the MP is politically motivated.Matsheka has been in the custody of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security since August 2 and the warrant of arrest was allegedly obtained on August 4, two days later.The issue of alleged ritual murders has never been an...