Just the ticket: R158m PowerBall winner spent only R15

SA's second-biggest PowerBall winner bought the winning ticket on the day of the draw, spending just R15.

This purchase resulted in a huge R158m win — the biggest for 2021 and the second- highest ever.

National Lottery operator Ithuba announced on Wednesday that the PowerBall and PowerBall Plus jackpots from the Tuesday draw had been won.

“We can confirm that the biggest jackpot thus far for 2021 has been won with the PowerBall jackpot of more than a whopping R158m. This means that the lucky winner walks away with the second-highest PowerBall jackpot in the history of the South African National Lottery, making them not only the biggest jackpot winner of 2021 but the biggest online jackpot winner since Ithuba took over as the operator in 2015,” it said.

The winner, who played using the Absa banking app, spent R15 on the winning ticket using the manual selection. The player chose numbers 5, 12, 15, 28, 29, and PowerBall number 14.

The national lottery operator said the PowerBall Plus jackpot of more than R17m was won.

The winning ticket was purchased just hours before the draw took place. It was bought at Super Spar, at the Silver Oaks Crossing Centre in Pretoria.

The Gauteng winner spent R105 on the ticket using the Quick Pick method.

Ithuba CEO Charmaine Mabuza has congratulated the winners.

“Congratulations to our PowerBall and PowerBall PLUS jackpot winners. When we took over the operations of the National Lottery, we promised to offer life-changing jackpots and we are delivering just that. We have kept our promise to reinvigorate the national lottery by offering record-breaking jackpots and creating more winners and multimillionaires than any other South African lottery operator.

“We are excited to have made two South African millionaires once again,” said Mabuza.

Anyone who wins more than R50,000 receives “extensive financial advice as well as trauma counselling from qualified psychologists”, said Ithuba. This was to “help them deal with their new financial circumstances”.

“These advisory services come at no cost to the winner,” said Ithuba.

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