210 Random Acts of Kindness
The most recent South Africa PowerBall draw on Friday 15th February saw 776,212 winners crowned, including three players who matched all five main numbers to take home just over R481,000 each. The trio of ticket holders were just the PowerBall away from landing the game’s biggest jackpot of the past decade. Ticket sales rocketed before the winning numbers were revealed, with players yearning to take home the biggest jackpot the African continent has ever seen.
Ahead of the draw last Friday, Ithuba – the official National Lottery operator in South Africa – rewarded its loyal players by carrying out 210 random acts of kindness to mirror the R210 jackpot up for grabs later that day. Lottery officials from Ithuba and a group of celebrities – including musician Dr Malinga – took to the streets to surprise its players queueing up for tickets nationwide. They reportedly carried out a variety of tasks for lucky recipients, including paying for people’s shopping, filling up petrol tanks, paying for taxi fares, and making sure shelter was in place to protect people from the rain.
Khensani Mabuza, a corporate relations executive for Ithuba, explained: "The lucky customers, which were selected in no particular order, received up to R500 each towards their petrol bills, while grocery customers received R300 each towards their grocery bills. The jackpot is sitting at this historical amount, and it’s taken a while to get here. We really want to say thank you to South Africa for supporting Powerball. We’ve given the country 210 million reasons to dream, 210 million reasons to play, and we want to give the country 210 random acts of kindness.”
Free Advice Offered to Big Winners
Mabuza also reminded PowerBall players that big winners receive free financial and psychological advice from Ithuba to help them adjust to a new life following a jackpot win, “giving them a structure to sustain their lottery winnings”. She added: “Imagine going to bed one day and you have a lot of debt, anxiety and stress, and the next moment you wake up and you’re a multi-millionaire. You need to prepare the winner psychologically for this lifestyle change. It’s not just a financial change.
“We see an uptake in financial investment from our winners. They are seeing the value of investing financially, seeing the value in making the right actions to sustain their wealth. It’s no longer a matter of ‘I win this large amount of money and the first thing I’m going to do is buy all these materialistic things – car, house.’ We give them the space to ask what they’ll be doing next year.”
The jackpot has been steadily growing for 23 consecutive draws, ever since 23rd November of last year, the last time the top prize was won. Unlike other lotteries, PowerBall doesn’t have a jackpot cap, so the prize money can keep growing until it has been won. The biggest PowerBall prize won in history was worth R145 million, claimed by a ticket holder from Mpumalanga in August 2018 and, if this jackpot is claimed by a single ticket holder, they will become the largest winner since the game began.
There are now 225 million reasons to dream ahead of tomorrow’s draw, and you can take part by filling out a playslip from any authorised ticket retailer in South Africa, picking five main numbers from 1 to 50, and a PowerBall number between 1 and 20, or entering online from the comfort of your own home. Best of luck to you all entering tomorrow night’s draw, and let us know how you get on!