Johannesburg - A Soweto factory worker may never have to work another day in her life after pocketing R20 million in a Lotto jackpot.
The woman found herself rolling in the big bucks instantly when she took a chance and played a ticket at Shoprite in Glen Ridge for the Saturday, April 30, draw.
Now in her mid-50s, the Sowetan matched all six Lotto numbers to become an instant multimillionaire.
In utter disbelief, she kept her winning ticket inside her Bible and thought it was all a dream.
When reality finally set in, the woman was ecstatic that she would be able to retire early and that her retirement money would now be an added bonus. She plans to buy her dream home at the seaside.
“This will transform my life,” she said, with tears rolling down her cheeks. They were tears of joy. She said she also planned to use her winnings to buy her daughter the house of her dreams.
“This is the Lotto game's 31st R1 million-plus jackpot winning ticket since June last year, when Ithuba took over the running of the lottery,” said lottery operator Ithuba's spokeswoman Zukiswa Nomnganga.
“While 39 Lotto jackpots have been won since June 2015, only eight jackpot winners in the Lotto received payouts of less than R1 million.”
Meanwhile, Ithuba said it had already created 53 millionaire winners across all lottery games since June last year, making one millionaire a week on average.
On the same Saturday that the Soweto woman won the Lotto, another ticket bought at Bonteheuwel post office in the Western Cape won the R1.5m Lotto Plus jackpot, in the same draw, said Nomnganga.
“Ithuba has already seen 100 jackpot winners across all the lottery games, with the Lotto Plus leading after having recorded a total of 43 jackpot winners.
“More than half of all jackpot winners across all the games have walked away with R1 million-plus winnings,” she said.
The Star