A Pretoria man who won just shy of R100 million in the Powerball draw recently has said he has no plans to resign from his job despite his newfound wealth.
He spent R150 on a ticket, which was purchased via FNB and entered selected numbers manually rather than opting for the quick-pick option.
His win in the 19 July 2022 SA Powerball draw yielded a hefty R99,983,308 prize.
“I have no plans to make big changes to my lifestyle, everything will still be normal, perhaps I may just buy a car and a house only,” said the winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous for now.
“I was excited, extremely happy. I have been playing the lottery games since my university days, so it has been many years, and this is the first time I won any jackpot.
“People need to understand that the odds of winning the lottery are very high, you will never know when it will be your turn to win, now I know that winning is possible.”
This isn’t the first time a lottery winner in South Africa has stated they will keep working after pocketing a big sum in the Powerball draw.
In February 2019, a 50-year-old general worker from Cape Town landed a R232 million win.
“I will keep my job and carry on like normal. We are not going to live for the world to see that we are rich,” he said at the time. “I chose these numbers since 2007. I played the same numbers whenever I got the chance to play.
A similar example followed in November 2019, when the winner of R6 million in the Lotto draw expressed sentiment akin to what the Capetonian Powerball victor said earlier in the year.
The Johannesburg resident said he would not be resigning from his job and his lifestyle would, for the most part, remain the same.
“I will settle my debts and live a debt-free life, and ensure that my children get the best education available. I will also invest some of the money in business; and also donate some of it to a shelter for the homeless in my community,” he stated at the time.
Incidentally, the R100 million won in July 2022 is the same number bagged in the SA Powerball in November 2021. Back then, it was a 72-year-old man from KwaZulu-Natal.
“I was hoping to catch a big fish and instead caught a whale,” he said late last year.
“I had been playing for almost 14 years now – every Tuesday and Friday. The most I would win was between R30 to R60.”
In closing, it’s worth mentioning there are of course those who choose to quit their jobs after winning the lottery.
One such example is the domestic worker who landed R70 million in a September 2019 Powerball draw.
Having been a Pretoria domestic worker for 30 years, she promptly expressed ambition to live in a five-bedroom house in a leafy suburb and to renovate her daughter’s family home.
