A R30 ticket wager and a manual selection of numbers was all it took for a 39 year old man to win the whopping R55 Million PowerBall jackpot from the 4^th of June 2019 draw.

The winner, who says he’s a regular Lottery player, recently visited the ITHUBA office in Sandton to claim his new fortune. In the company of his partner and his father-in-law, he told ITHUBA that this windfall would change his life in a big way. “The first thing that I want to do is to invest a large sum of my winnings so I don’t ever have to face financial challenges again.  I also want to buy a house where my partner and our two children can live, we have been staying at her parents’ house and I have been longing for us to own a home of our own. One other important wish I have been hoping to fulfill, is to pursue tertiary education. Now that I can afford to, I plan to register the first chance I get.”

The winner says he will donate some money to close family and relatives to help improve their lives as well. He accepted the financial advice and trauma counselling that ITHUBA offers to all winners of R50, 000 and above.

Players can purchase PowerBall tickets from participating retailers, the National Lottery website, Mobile App or participating banking channels at any time before 8:30pm on the day of the draw.

The winner of the R12 Million jackpot from the 2nd March 2019 Lotto PLUS 1 draw has come forward. The 34-year-old Zimbabwean man who has been living in South Africa for 10 years now, was overwhelmed with emotions as he told ITHUBA of his humble background.

“My parents passed away when I was still very young and my sister had to step in as a mother figure to my siblings and I. Growing up in a child-headed home was tough – the poverty just never improved”, told the winner.

“When I was in my early 20s, my friend who was already living and working in Durban suggested that I come to look for work in South Africa to help ease my circumstances at home. I stayed in Durban for 5 years and during that time, I worked a lot of different casual and domestic jobs. One of the companies that I used to work for during their annual trade in Durban, recognised my hard work and offered me a permanent job at their head office in Johannesburg. This move changed my life. I was able to rent a decent place to stay and was able to help my family back at home to have food on the table every day. I thought that my life could not get better than that”, explains the winner.

“A few weeks ago, I decided to give LOTTO a try for the first time and I won just over R200. I decided to play again and this time I ticked the PLUS 1 and PLUS 2 options. I did not think much about the numbers, I just randomly selected them. I could not believe it when I learnt that I, in fact, had a winning ticket – I won R12 Million!”       

The winner told ITHUBA that he was worried about how he was going to use this money towards a long term financial stability. “I was so relieved to learn that ITHUBA offers psychological counselling and financial advice which have both helped me a lot. I will use my winnings to buy myself a house, renovate my family home in Zimbabwe, buy a car and invest the rest of the money.”

Commenting on who is eligible to play the Lottery and claim winnings, ITHUBA says anyone who is 18 years or older, holds a valid proof of identity and has a valid South African bank account is permitted to play, win and claim from the National Lottery. All winners claiming R50 000 and above qualify to receive psychological counselling and financial advice which are part of ITHUBA’s free winner services package.

The National Lottery Operator ITHUBA has announced that daily games PICK 3 and RAPIDO will be decommissioned from Friday 15 March 2019. This simply means that from the 15^th, players will not be able to play these games as they will officially be removed from the South African National Lottery portfolio.

Commenting on why the games are being cancelled, ITHUBA says that this is in response to players’ feedback. “The National Lottery players are of vital importance to us and as such, we really take the time to understand what motivates our players to participate in National Lottery games. Following extensive market research, our players are looking for a daily game that is more compelling and provides more opportunities to win. It is for this reason that we removed PICK 3 and RAPIDO and have launched the exciting DAILY LOTTO game”, said Khensani Mabuza, Corporate Relations Executive at ITHUBA.

The recently launched DAILY LOTTO promises to offer estimated daily jackpots between R100 000 and R250 000 which do not roll over but rather roll down to the next prize Division, guaranteeing winners daily. Just a few days after the launch, the DAILY LOTTO had its first jackpot winner who won R215 993 on Tuesday 12 March. ITHUBA says that this jackpot win is very encouraging and is proof that the DAILY LOTTO has sparked great interest among players.

“It is our responsibility as the National Lottery Operator to keep enhancing games, whilst ensuring that we provide an exciting, reinvigorated and progressive game portfolio”, said Mabuza.

ITHUBA has assured the public that players that have won from both PICK 3 and RAPIDO will still be eligible to claim their winnings within 365 days after the applicable draw dates, even after the decommissioning date. Daily draws for PICK 3 will continue up to 20^th March for all players that purchased tickets for future draws.

On Tuesday 19 February, the National Lottery Operator ITHUBA, announced that after 24 rollovers, the record-breaking PowerBall jackpot had been won by a single ticket holder.

ITHUBA has confirmed that the winner of the historic R232 Million PowerBall jackpot has come forward to claim their winnings on Monday 25 February 2019. According to ITHUBA, the winner says they heard on the radio that the anonymous winning ticket was bought at the OK Mini Mark in Tygerdal, Goodwood, Western Cape. “The winner said that he then decided to go check if he had won anything and to his disbelief, he discovered that he was actually holding the winning ticket”, said Khensani Mabuza, Corporate Relations Executive at ITHUBA.

Since the announcement of the R232 Million PowerBall jackpot win, there has been an increasing interest from South Africans through social and mainstream media, regarding the whereabouts of the winner. ITHUBA says that they are happy to finally tell the story of the biggest jackpot winner in the history of the South African National Lottery.

In a televised interview on Tuesday 26 February, the winner, a blue-collar worker in his 50’s, said that the psychological counselling and financial advice he received from ITHUBA, has helped him to put things into perspective regarding his next financial move. These services are part of ITHUBA’s Winner Services package and come at no additional cost to the winner.

Prior to this win on 19 February 2019, the PowerBall jackpot had reached R210 Million for Friday the 15^th and in celebration of the then highest jackpot, ITHUBA embarked on a campaign which they called the #210PowerBallRandomActsofKindness challenge. As part of the National campaign, ITHUBA surprised the public with ‘random acts of kindness’ which included randomly paying for customers’ fuel, groceries and taxi-fare.

The winner becomes the richest National Lottery jackpot winner in South Africa, shedding off the title from the 34 year-old R145 Million jackpot winner in August 2018.

He is one of two LOTTO PLUS 1 winners who each won R29 million from the 24 November LOTTO draw.

The winner says that he is a regular LOTTO and PowerBall player and has been playing for many years. However, he says that when he played his LOTTTO numbers last week for R50, using a QuickPick selection method, he did not imagine that he was just days away from being R29 million richer.

The elderly winner visited the National Lottery offices in the company of his son on Thursday, to finally claim his prize. He expressed both disbelief and gratitude for his new fortune that he refers to as a “blessing in his golden years”.

It seems that this jackpot could not have gone to a more deserving person. This winner is a community leader and has been a pillar of his community for decades. He has been running an old age home in his community since 1980, committed to taking care of the elderly.  He later started another Centre, taking care of children living with disabilities. He has sustained both organisations with the help of funding from different donors, and some of his own money. The winner says that money will go a long way in helping him expand the impact of his organisations. “There’s a lot children living with disabilities that are on the waiting list, waiting to receive help from our centre. We have not had enough money to accommodate them and this has been breaking my heart and giving me sleepless nights. I will use some of my winnings to improve this situation”, said the teary winner.

The winner has been running the NPOs with the help of his children who are fully hands-on in the organisations. His son says that from when he and his siblings where young, both his parents have always taught them the importance of helping others and sharing even the little that you have with them.

The winner received psychological counselling and extensive financial advice organised by ITHUBA, which he attended with his son.