Cape Town - A Free State housewife has won more than R26 million in the latest Lotto Plus draw.
Ithuba said the winner of Lotto Plus draw had finally come forward to claim her winnings.
“Since the Lottery was launched in the country 17 years ago, this housewife-now-turned millionaire, has always played the Lotto game whenever she had extra cash. Today, the Free State housewife has a bank account worth the value of a Caribbean Private Island. The R26550301 windfall was the biggest ever jackpot for Lotto Plus since the game’s inception," Ithuba said.
The winner carefully selected her six winning numbers and only purchased the ticket for R15.
She told Ithuba that she and her husband usually spent R500 on a monthly basis on Lotto and Lotto Plus tickets, and that this jackpot was the first winnings.
The winner was “very emotional” when she found out she was the winner.
“I found out about the winning ticket while standing in my kitchen and checking the numbers from a text message on my phone. 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."
The winner said she plans on investing most of the money to prepare for their retirement. They have both always wanted to tour South Africa, and will now be able to afford it, and she would also like to take her husband on a long-term dream of going to visit Namibia and Malawi.
Tearful, the winner said: “We never thought that we would ever win, things like this don’t happen to people like us, we are poor people."