Johannesburg – One of the reasons I’ve never won a tender is I’ve never bothered to bid for one.
I’m an avid news junkie and I’m apprised of the monies flowing to all kinds of shady and legitimate companies as a result of state procurement.
On occasion I’ve been tempted to set up a company (a fairly easy process) and give tenderpreneurship a shot.
I am also aware that in order to win a tender, you need to grease the palms of some officials and even politicians.
It’s not every tender that is rigged, but I’ve held back because I don’t want to soil my hands or conscience.
I enjoy my beer if I bought it with the sweat of my brow.
Besides, I don’t want to see myself squirming before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and pretend I don’t remember the source of money that I bought that Toyota Venture with.
I am aware of hundreds of ways I can get rich without stealing a cent and tenderpreneurship is the easiest of them all. With the right connections, your company can even get paid without doing a day’s work.
I can get a few tech heads to register patents and applications on my behalf and hope one of them hits pay dirt, or I can go into poultry farming, except that it’s hard work and chickens are skittish and are forever defecating.
Where am I going with this tale?
Well, we can all use a fast buck to make our festive season merrier.
This week, 20 lucky South Africans hit a pot of gold. They collectively predicted the five winning Lotto Powerball numbers on Tuesday night and shared the R107-million spoils.
The country went abuzz as the winning numbers that rolled out of the operator, Ithuba machine, looked improbable in their sequence. They were five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10 and the lucky 20 got R5.6-million apiece.
The odds of hitting the Lotto jackpot have always been stacked against the punters.
They are one in 14-million, but many people have hit the sweet spot and become millionaires in the process.
Many people have been sceptical about the integrity of the Lotto. Despite a lack of evidence, many believe the jackpot is rigged. I do not speak on behalf of the Lotto, but I do know that it is highly regulated and any whiff of rigging will be bad for business.
What got my goat was those who criticised the supposedly improbable sequence this week were people who don’t even play the Lotto.
Although they salivated at the prospect of going into the festive season R5.6-million richer, they found solace that they could not have predicted the sequence had they bothered to place their bets.
Ithuba spokesperson scrambled to explain that indeed many people who play the Lotto actually use the one, two, three … sequence.
She made an example of people whose bank account pins are one, two, three, four despite the caution from bank authorities.
I have played the lottery occasionally and have yet to hit the jackpot.
I’ve occasionally won negligible amounts that could not even purchase a six pack of my favourite hooch. But one day is one day.
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