I think it is so important in this country that we do our best to build our fellow South Africans in a contructive way, rather than break them down with unkind words.

In no way is anyone trying to cast a shadow on the wonderful work Uthingo has done over the past 7 years. Building a lottery in this country from scratch is a task that all involved should be really proud of. It has already contributed to making the lives of thousands of South Africans more bearable in some ways.

I think the issues around the current legal proceedings are causing people in the marketplace to feel conflicted and confused. We need to be so careful about devaluing the work done out there. At present, nobody is completely sure about who will actually operate the lottery come April 1, and so both teams are clearly needing to be in a position to do that, pending an announcement from the minister.

If either team undermines the marketplace through negative conversations, I believe the marketplace itself will be damaged: and if the marketplace loses confidence in the lottery in any way, many South Africans who rely on the lottery for survival will be the real victims.

I think that both the Uthingo and Gidani teams need to apply themselves to doing the best job they can for the next few days: the outcome of the legal proceedings will be decided in court and in the minister’s office, not in the stores.

I hope that all the people in our team are doing the very best they can out there. We remain committed to building a Lottery for Gidani that all South Africans can be proud of, and will stay on that course unless our clients tell us otherwise.

Good luck to us all out there, Uthingo and Gidani alike - South Africa needs us all to be the best we can be.

We’re really proud of the training work we’re doing for Gidani at the moment. Our vision was to not only build world class operator training content (and feedback from our delegates in the field seems to testify to that), but also go beyond the obvious brief and upskill retailer workers in customer service and cross-selling skills. Many retailer workers chose to attend our training more than once just because they had never been exposed to that level of learning before.

These skills take them way beyond just the processing of a ticket, but also adding value to the individual and the retailer owner: better sales and customer service skills means a better customer experience all round. And a better customer experience means increased footfall and better turnover for the retailer.

The real benefit to the training we’re offering is that it is SETA-aligned, and retailers will be able to get themselves an accreditation: that makes their skills portable. That means not just the terminal operating skills, but the sales and customer service skills too. They will be able to accredit themselves, receive a certificate, and then, should they apply for another job at another retailer, their accreditation makes them more marketable: that’s how they take it further. Many of the terminal operators have never had a portable accreditation before: it’s an important step forward in the uplifting of South Africans, and I’m really proud that we can support Gidani in this.

We are also delighted with the staff who have joined us. I’m sure the issue with the license award is making many people feel insecure. None of us will really know what the outcome will be until this whole regrettable thing is over. But Ngikwazi will move forward with strength, energy and integrity, no matter what the outcome: we have a commitment to do great things in building this country, and look forward to whatever challenges and opportunities come our way.