While this Eldorado Park resident’s relatively modest prize of R500,000 doesn’t rank up there with some of the biggest wins in the country’s lottery history, she’ll be spending it on her family. “I have two daughters and my wish has always been to build them a double storey dream house, where they can raise their children. My daughter is expecting her first child and the other one has two beautiful kids,” she said.
Earlier this year, a South African citizen collected a prize almost 90 times more than the half a million Rands won by the Gauteng women. As one of the more recent SA Powerball winners, he packeted the hefty sum of R43 million. From a commercial rather than personal point of view, the winner was going to invest some of the cash into his business.
The education of his children was also on his financial agenda. “My father and I have our own family business and some of the money will go towards expanding and growing the company. This will also allow me to create jobs within my community,” he enthused. “This is honestly something I never expected. As a father of three young kids, something very important to me is for my children to get the best education. I will save a portion of my winnings to be able to give them the opportunity to go to university one day and make their dreams become a reality.”
Even earlier in 2021, a man had just ended a relationship with his girlfriend. The difficulty of that challenge was soon brightened by the news that he had pocketed R60 million via the SA Powerball. A financial professional by trade, he soon revealed he was keen to grow the money rather than spend it immediately. Oh, and there was room for a bit of expenditure on his former partner, too. “My live-in girlfriend had just broken up with me, and I was not in the best of moods. By the time I checked the results on Friday night, I was by myself as she had already moved out,” he said. “Because of my profession, I am clued up on the kind of investments I want, to ensure that my money keeps working for me and bears interest.
I will also buy my ex-girlfriend a fridge, probably a washing machine too, just to say ‘no hard feelings’.” A 2020 study from the University of South Africa revealed that approximately nine percent of jackpot winners spend their all or parts of their prizes on entertainment and leisure. A further three percent didn’t really know what they would do with their newfound wealth, according to the report. Purchasing of luxury items such as cellphones or jewellery weighed in at a formidable eight percent in terms of what winners wanted to use their cash for.
