The winner of the R114 Million PowerBall jackpot is a 35-year-old woman from Soweto.

The occasional Lottery player said she decided to try her luck when she saw other people queuing to buy their tickets. “On my way from work, I saw a long que of people with betslips and I knew they must be pursuing something big, even though I had no idea of what the jackpot prize was. I became curious and searched for some coins in my bag to see if I could also play” said the winner.

The young winner, who manually selected her numbers, spent only R5 on her winning ticket that she bought at Victor and Son’s café in Roodepoort.

Speaking to ITHUBA, the winner said that she was renting a back room in Soweto. “Sometimes, I could not always afford rent so my brother would always assist me”.

The winner, who is a blue-collar worker, says she has been yearning to be fully involved in her children’s everyday life for years now. “My 4 children have been staying with my mother back at home, and I have never been able to spend as much time with them as I wish since I had to work in Johannesburg. I am mostly grateful that this money will give me an opportunity to raise my children, to be able to take them to school and have the pleasure of preparing a scrumptious meal that they can enjoy when they get back from school, something that I’ve been wishing for, for a long time.” she said.

The winner received trauma counselling and financial advice which ITHUBA offers to winners of R50 000 and above for free. “Judging by the amount of time the winner spent with both the psychologist and the financial advisor, we are confident that she will make sound financial decisions that will secure her family’s future for generations to come” said Busisiwe Msizi, head of corporate relations at ITHUBA.

ITHUBA treated the winner to a five-star hotel stay in Gauteng. “The winner was in complete disbelief when she saw her room. She said in Isizulu: ‘umbhede wami ngempela lona, omkhulu kangaka!’(which means, ‘is this big bed really mine’)” said Msizi.

The winner said in addition to buying her own house, she wants to build her mother a big house that she will comfortably live in. She would also like to buy herself a stylish car but first needs to learn how to drive and obtain her driver’s license as soon as possible.

“I can’t wait to drive past my ex-boyfriend in my new car. He will probably faint when he sees me waving at him. He broke up with me because I was broke and didn’t have a fancy job” she said jokingly.

The winner, who will not be returning to her job, says her new life has begun.

This PowerBall jackpot has rolled 19 times before it got hit. It is the 6^th highest jackpot to ever be won in the history of the South African National Lottery, the highest one being R232 Million that was won in February 2019.

A part time builder from Tembisa, Johannesburg has become the latest millionaire, winning the R8 217 004.70 Million PowerBall PLUS jackpot from the 29 November 2019 draw. He becomes one of 8 jackpot winners in the past two months, that saw ITHUBA pay over R285 Million in jackpot prizes across the various National Lottery games.

The father of three, says that he stopped playing the lottery a few years back after he thought that the lottery numbers were rigged and only certain people won. He only started playing again early this year, after seeing the record breaking jackpots ITHUBA was delivering and the number of players winning daily. He tried his luck once more and won R200 giving him faith that the lotto is in fact not rigged. Asked how he found out about his winnings, he said he watched the draw live on TV that night and recognised some of his numbers but was not sure if he had indeed won the jackpot. It was only three days later that he checked his ticket, which he had kept in his lucky jacket, that he realised he had indeed won the jackpot.

Thus far, the only person he has told about his winning is his wife, and he only told her after he came to the ITHUBA head office to verify his ticket. He is not planning on telling his children about his winning because he fears they might tell the rest of the community and expose him to unnecessary attention, but this coming Christmas, he says he will be able to afford to buy them presents they wish for.

He does not plan to make any drastic changes to his lifestyle and will continue working and living in Tembisa. He plans to invest a significant amount of his winnings and the rest he will use to renovate his house and take his family on holiday.

Busisiwe Msizi, Head of Corporate Relations at ITHUBA, says “We are extremely happy that we have managed to make another player a millionaire this festive season. What is more exciting is that, in the last two months, six players have become instant millionaires through our various games. This year alone, we have paid over R2.8 Billion in lottery winnings and this is a number that keeps growing daily. When we took over as the National Lottery operator, one of the promises we made was to make the lottery more exciting and create more jackpot winners. We are glad that we continue to make this possible for our players.”  

As per all winners of R50 000 and above, the jackpot winner received free financial advice and trauma counseling courtesy of ITHUBA.

The South African National Lottery Operator, ITHUBA, is excited to announce that over R2.5 Billion has been won across all the games, this year alone - another record breaking achievement by the third National Lottery Operator who took over lottery operations in 2015.

“We congratulate all the winners who have come forward to claim their winnings. As ITHUBA, we set out to change the lives of ordinary South Africans since taking over National Lottery operations and this momentous pay out is testament that we are positively contributing to the betterment of South Africans” says Khensani Mabuza, Corporate Relations Executive at ITHUBA.

The biggest jackpot ever to be paid in the history of the lottery in South Africa, and Africa at large, was the R232 Million PowerBall Jackpot that was won by a blue collar worker from Cape Town after 24 rollovers.

Other notable big jackpots came from PowerBall and PowerBall PLUS games, with a R141 Million win on 23^rd August 2019 and R70 Million on 3^rd September 2019, respectively, both these players have come forward to claim their winnings.

ITHUBA’s DAILY LOTTO game, is making significant contributions towards sales and produces winners daily. Since its launch in March 2019, DAILY LOTTO has paid out R 224,665,218.51 and that number continues to grow. Staying true to our promise of innovation and introducing unique Lottery games, ITHUBA has launched its second and newest game under their sports gaming portfolio, SPORTSTAKE 8 which has already paid out R1, 744,210.20. SPORTSTAKE 13 has paid over R89, 103,342.20 in winnings.

“When we were awarded the National Lottery license we promised to reinvigorate the National Lottery by optimising the player and winner experience. We have done this by offering life changing jackpots, introduced an exciting game portfolio and increased lottery access channels making it more convenient to play lottery games than ever before. Players can now use our National Lottery website, our mobile app and any of the four major banks to play the Lottery, this is over and above the Retail network” says Mabuza.  

A domestic worker from Pretoria has become the latest millionaire scooping R70 873 741.30 in the PowerBall PLUS draw of 3 September 2019.

The single mother of one, played the winning ticket at her local Shell Garage and spent only R7.50 using the manual selection method. Speaking to ITHUBA, she explained that she initially thought only four numbers that she played had won. It was only after she told her employer that she had won with four numbers that her employer made her aware that she had in fact won the big jackpot. She says she immediately rushed back to the Shell Garage where the cashier advised her to write her name and ID number on the back of her winning ticket and go to the offices of ITHUBA to claim her winnings.   

Sharing her life story, she says she was drowning in debt as she is the sole bread winner in her household. The night before the draw, she says she put her ticket in the Bible a friend had given her and went on her knees and prayed to God give her a sign that soon all her troubles will be over. Continuing her story, she says she could not sleep and again at 3am, she asked God to bless her and her family with good fortunes.

The winner has already resigned from her job as a domestic worker of over 30 years, and plans to use her winnings towards renovating the family house she shares with her daughter, grandchild and younger brother. She also plans to help her daughter with her tertiary fees so that she can be the first in their family to get a tertiary qualification. She is also planning to buy a five bedroom house in one of Pretoria’s leafy suburbs, take her family to Cape Town for the holidays and buy a Smart phone.  

Asked how she picked her winning numbers, she says she always plays the same numbers but sometimes picks numbers that are popular and drawn often. She plans to continue playing the lottery even though she has already won the jackpot and plans to keep her winning receipt in her Bible as a reminder to always thank God for her fortunes. After receiving free financial advice and trauma counselling as part of ITHUBA winners’ support programme, the winner plans to invest most her winnings and live off the interest from her investments.