So the poor deaf guy from Cape Town who has gone into hiding after he apparently won R91-million in the PowerBall draw is not the real winner.
Lottery operators Gidani quickly called a press conference this morning after it emerged that the alleged winning ticket displayed in various media around the country had in fact been bought the morning after Friday night's draw and is therefore only valid for tonight's draw. Total bummer!
So I was sent to cover the press conference aimed at clearing up all the conclusion, setting the record straight and all that. Before leaving I made a quick dash to the loo and found that someone who had been there earlier had left a pamphlet in the cubicle. A pamphlet about suicide and how it impacts on everyone left behind. Dear God - I know things are hectic and chaotic at work and bunches of people are off with stress or burnout, but I hope to goodness one of my colleagues is not planning to top herself!
The off to Gidani's offices on the building site that is the intersection of Allandale and Old Pretoria Road. But it was for happy news indeed!!
It seems the real winner of the money is a happily married mom to two teenagers who slipped her winning ticket into her husband's wallet and booked them into a hotel in Cape Town for the weekend before claiming her prize this morning. She wants to remain anonymous and who can blame her after seeing what chaos and mayhem has befallen the mute cleaner who was outed as the winner by a tabloid paper??
She sounds like a brilliant person. She has no plans to go nuts with the money, not even prioritising a holiday right now as she and her hubbie don't even want their kids to know that they are the new holders of a truckload of money. She is super-impressed that her windfall - R91-million - was from a draw commemorating the life of 91-year-old Madiba and his 20th anniversary of freedom. And she's going to buy a car for her kid who starts university next year.
How cool is that?
While I have a whole lot of experience at winning random e-mail lotteries that I never entered and have never claimed - no day goes past without me getting some or other offer of large amounts of foreign currency, this is the one I would REALLY like to win. And like this latest lady - I wouldn't tell anyone!!
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Okay, I'd like to know how they made such a huge mistake!
ReplyDeleteI would love to win the money... and I think not telling the kids is also a good idea.
I don't think it was the Lotto guys at all who messed up. Rather the anxious tabloid journos who wrote the story without checking the facts or reading the ticket and then whisked the family off so nobody else could speak to them. It's a pity cos that kind of thing can ruin lives!
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