The SA Childrens' Charity Trust has turned to the Constitutional Court in a bid to defend its televised "Winikhaya" competition.

On Wednesday, the SACCT lodged an application for leave to appeal against a Supreme Court ruling which held that the Winikhaya competition, as it was presently being administrated and implemented, was not a promotional competition but unlawful.

Winikhaya project manager Kimon Phitidis said that the National Lotteries Board had brought an application at the Pretoria High Court in 2006 to close Winikhaya — because it said it was operating unlawfully.

Winikhaya is promoted by the SA Children's Charity Trust as a competition, broadcast on television by the SABC.

Phitidis said the papers lodged at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday by SACCT maintained that Winikhaya was a promotional competition, compliant with the Lottery Act.

The papers also suggest that the National Lotteries Board did not have the authority to declare a competition unlawful, but that this power lay with the minister of trade and industry.

Phitidis said SACCT also stipulated in court papers that the issue was constitutional because the trust aimed to defend the constitutional rights of children such as the right to shelter, health care and social services.

An illegal competition?

"In a challenging fundraising environment... it is these rights that funding through WiniKhaya allows the charities to serve," he said.

Phitidis also said the papers raised a debate about the merits of competitions designed to promote commercial products versus those designed to promote charities.

"According to the Supreme Court of Appeal the former is allowed under the Lotteries Act while the latter is not.

"This in effect precludes the rights of a non-commercial entity to run a competition for fundraising purposes," he said.

In a founding affidavit submitted to the Constitutional Court by SACCT trustee, Dawid Crous, he says the trust represents the Red Cross Society of SA, the IThemba Trust, Cotlands, CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation and the Reach for a Dream Foundation.

Since the Winikhaya competition began in 2003, the charities had received substantial income and were presently receiving approximately R12-million gross per annum between them.

Crous said that if the competition was terminated the charities would be "severely compromised" and the Ithemba Trust, which supported 20 other charities financially, would close down.

Sapa