Nicolette Dirk
ONE of the first big purchases a city resident is going to make after winning R9.3 million playing the Lotto is a house for his family.
The multimillion-rand winner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he jumped for joy when he saw his numbers being drawn on the PowerBall last week.
He then quickly hid his lucky ticket in a cupboard until he went to redeem his prize money.
“Now we can also help family members who have stood by us in tough times and needy children from the community,” he said.
Being a hardcore Lotto player, he said he had expected that luck would be on his side one day.
A driver by profession, he described himself as a careful spender but one who would fork out up to R84 on Lotto tickets monthly.
He said he wanted his winnings to make a difference in other people’s lives as well and would be donating to children’s charities.
He plans to help his sister, one of the only people he has told about his sudden good fortune. There are also no big plans to change his lifestyle, and when he went to collect his money, he said he prayed for protection for him and his family.
Ithuba spokesperson Zukiswa Nomnganga said officials were delighted that the ticket had been verified.
Since becoming the operator of the Lotto games on June 1, Nomnganga said Ithuba had created four PowerBall millionaires, eight Lotto millionaires, one Lotto Plus millionaire and over 6.5 million winners across all game portfolios.
nicolette.dirk@inl.co.za