The lucky lady bought her ticket at the RM Bottle Store in Henneman and chose her own six numbers rather than going for a Lucky Dip. She had never previously won anything on Lotto or Lotto Plus, and says it took a considerable amount of time for the realisation to sink in.
“I found out about the winning ticket while standing in my kitchen and checking the numbers from a text message on my phone,” she said in a statement from South African National Lottery operator Ithuba. “When I got to the third correct number‚ I just started screaming‚ shaking and spinning around. I was unbelievably excited. I phoned my husband‚ but he couldn’t believe it either and said that I should make sure first. I then phoned the Ithuba office‚ who confirmed that I did in fact win.”
As well as investing most of their winnings for their retirement, the woman and her husband have always wanted to travel around South Africa and visit Namibia and Malawi. The winner added: “We never thought that we would ever win‚ things like this don’t happen to people like us‚ we are poor people.”
The South African National Lottery offers big prizes on a variety of different games. The Lotto jackpot tomorrow night will be worth R26 million, while there are Powerball and Powerball Plus prizes of R14 million and R36 million respectively on offer this evening, and players across the country will be hoping to emulate the success of the Free State winner.
