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.