MBABANE:Sibusiso Shongwe,the former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs now lawyer representing eBet,has come-up to clarify that,the gambling company is not,in any way,owing 8bet R50million, accusing the newly established gambling company of seeking to prevent and undermine fair competition.
The lawyer was responding to this Swaziland News after this publication published a story suggesting that,8bet has filed court papers demanding reasons from the Gaming Board under the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs,why eBet was granted a provisional license despite failing to pay R50million to SwaziBet(8bet) among other alleged outstanding claims.
“As eBet,we have seen the story and we wish to clarify that,we are not owing anything to 8bet or Swazibet.We will file court papers and respond to their application but, we cannot allow this false narrative driven by 8bet to reach the public domain without clarification because we are business and,bad publicity based on false narratives is not good for any business.This is what happened so you can understand how SwaziBet came into being; a gambling license was granted to Mduduzi Maziya in 2018 and Maziya died before operationalizing his company as at the time,the internet was not popular in eSwatini like now.But shortly after Maziya died of COVID-19, the internet became popular and his son Mcolisi Maziya wrote to the Gaming Board requesting that,his father’s business be transferred to his name and the Gaming Board allowed him as per his request.Mcolisi Maziya then engaged us as eBet,an international gambling company to invest in his SwaziBet and we agreed that as eBet we will have 67% shares and SwaziBet will own 33% because SwaziBet or Mcolisi was only owning the license with no resources or money”, said the lawyer.
The eBet lawyer said Mcolisi Maziya who had taken over the business from his father also died and soon thereafter,Ntombifuthi Maziya who claimed to be the wife to Mcolisi’s father Mduduzi Maziya emerged seeking to take over the gambling business.
“We don’t want to delve much on the allegations how Mcolisi Maziya who was owning SwaziBet died because there are allegations to that effect but,that’s a separate story that we don’t want to touch.Ntombifuthi Maziya who was a baby-mama to the late Mduduzi Maziya emerged claiming to the wife,she removed eBet and partnered with other investors who call themselves 8bet. We tried in vain to engage SwaziBet and ended-up applying for our own license and soon thereafter, we were awarded a provisional license by the Gaming Board.So now, SwaziBet who is working with 8bet is demanding R50million, saying we are owing them just for working with them despite the fact that, SwaziBet dumped us and when we invested, SwaziBet had no money but a license.The R50million is just from the air,they just came with a figure from their head saying we are owing R50million and now they want the Gaming Board to give reasons why we were awarded a provisional license.I am sharing all this to you so that you can know and some of these facts will form part of the court papers.We are expected to respond to their court application in the next five(5) days but in business, you can’t allow a false narrative to go for a whole week without clarification, we are not owing anything to SwaziBet or 8bet”, said the lawyer.
Sibusiso Shongwe.