Cape Town - All Craig Lucas wants to do with the R250 000 he won in The Voice SA is to take his mommy on a well-deserved holiday.
The Elsies River resident captured the hearts of the nation on Sunday when he came out tops in the reality TV show, beating seven other contestants in the nail-biting finale.
While Craig, 23, will only be returning home from Joburg in two to four weeks’ time, his proud mom Jenny Lucas, 52, landed at Cape Town international airport on Monday, where she was greeted by a horde of disappointed press photographers, who expected to see Craig by her side.
On top of bagging a coveted record deal from Universal Music South Africa, Craig walked off with R250 000 in cash from dialdirect; Samsung products worth R100 000, another R100 000 in fashion products from Truworths and a cool Subaru Impreza 2.0 Premium CVT.
Craig, who has an honours degree in finance from UCT, has admitted to being a “hell driver”, and says he looks forward to taking his new wheels out for a ride.
Craig won a Subaru Impreza 2.0 Premium CVT. Picture: ANA Pictures
M-Net’s Ingrid Engelbrecht told the Daily Voice: “So far his only plans are to take his mother on holiday, first priority!”
Meanwhile, The Voice SA runner-up Josh Ansley, took to social media to defend his friend from online trolls who expressed their displeasure at the result.
M-Net said more than 1.6 million votes were cast in the dramatic final week of voting.
Facebook user Anna-Marie Wessels commented on The Voice SA’s page: “Craig don’t sing - he is screaming like a cat who has babies. Sorry Josh for a 2nd year in a row The Voice SA is up to S***!”
Zuzette Coetzer Botes wrote: “RIGGED, RIGGED, RIGGED.”
Craig Lucas wants to take his mother, Jenny Lucas, (above) on a holiday. Picture: ANA Pictures
But Josh would not let anyone rain on Craig’s parade and told his fans on Facebook: “...If you really love me please respect my wishes to pull down your abusive posts towards Craig. I think he is a phenomenal, fresh, original artist who is 100% a deserving winner.”
A proud Jenny says negative comments won't the spotlight off her son.
“We are extremely proud of Craig and the news of his achievement is still sinking in, so for us as a family right now, that is our main focus and we don’t want to entertain any negativity at this proud time.”