Biggest Lottery Winners

South Africa’s biggest lottery winners have claimed prizes worth hundreds of millions of rand, instantly becoming rich enough to fulfil their dreams. Both Lotto and PowerBall have delivered big winners and here you can find out more about the lucky players who have won the top prizes from each lottery.

PowerBall Winners

Here are the top five jackpots to have ever been awarded in PowerBall, along with details of the winners.

Location Location: Cape Town
Date Date: 19 February 2019
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R232 Million

A record-breaking PowerBall jackpot came to the boil after virtually a whole summer without a winner, jumping up to R232 million for the draw on 19 February 2019. A single ticket matched all the numbers and the winner came forward to claim their money one week later, opting to stay anonymous.

It was revealed, however, that the ticket belonged to a man in his 50s from Cape Town who worked in a ‘blue collar’ job and had no intention of quitting work. He picked his own numbers and spent just R22.50 on buying his tickets at an OK Mini Mart in Tygerdal. His main focus for the money was to give his children the best education possible.

Location Location: Kwazulu-Natal
Date Date: 10 July 2020
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R153 Million

This enormous prize was won on PowerBall Plus rather than Powerball, after an incredible run of rollovers stretching back to the previous December. The only player to match the winning numbers was a man from KwaZulu-Natal, who had bet via the Standard Bank app.

He revealed that he was not a regular player but had entered his numbers in 10 consecutive draws as the jackpot was so large. He thanked his in-laws for encouraging him to play and hailed the windfall as a ‘massive gift’ that would set the family up for life. However, he insisted that he and his wife had no immediate plans to retire.

Location Location: Secunda
Date Date: 3 August 2018
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R145 Million

An engineer from Secunda revealed that he had used his dreams for guidance after winning R145 million. The young man, who did not want his name to be disclosed, had picked the number 4 as his PowerBall, based on the ‘Fafi’ system of dream analysis and associating objects or events with numbers, having dreamt of a fight before he played.

The winner bought his R20 ticket from Evander Dienstasie on 1 Rotter Dam Road, Evander, and decided to keep his ticket in his sock over the weekend until he was ready to claim. He even said that he was too afraid to go outside before he claimed the money in case something happened to him.

Location Location: Western Cape
Date Date: 23 August 2019
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R141 Million

A player on holiday in the Mossel Bay region of Western Cape pocketed R141 million after being inspired by a dream his wife had in which he was being covered in gold sprinkles. He was a regular Sportstake player but also enjoyed entering PowerBall from time to time and so he bought a Quick Pick from a Spar in Groot Brakrivier after something told him it was going to be his lucky day.

He vowed to continue working in his job in the construction industry and said the money would be put to good use for his family, ensuring that his children and grandchildren’s futures would be secured for generations to come.

Location Location: KwaZulu-Natal
Date Date: 28 April 2020
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R135 Million

A lucky player from KwaZulu-Natal snapped up this nine-figure jackpot in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. With all players urged to stay safe and take part online to help stop the spread of Covid-19, the winner used the First National Bank (FNB) app to wager R100 on the draw.

The jackpot was worth R135 million after rolling over for more than two months, and the winner had to wait to come forward as claim offices were closed due to the crisis. It was the biggest online jackpot win in South African lottery history.

Lotto Winners

Find out about the biggest Lotto jackpots of all time and the winners who claimed the prizes.

Location Location: Cape Town
Date Date: 27 January 2018
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R110 Million

There were four winning tickets in the biggest Lotto draw of all time, each worth R27.5 million. It took 21 rollovers to create the R110 million jackpot, with no winners for two and a half months.

One of the lucky winners left it almost a full year to come forward, claiming their prize just a day before it expired. He was described as a 58-year-old from Ravensmead in Cape Town, but did not want any further information to be divulged.

Location Location: Cape Town
Date Date: 4 May 2019
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R79 Million

The Cape Town winner of this big jackpot revealed that she wanted to give R2 million to a petrol attendant who had always been polite and helpful.

She also intended to buy a house with a garden for her grandson to play in, and pay for her daughter to quit her job as a call-centre agent so she could fulfil a dream of studying towards a psychology degree.

Location Location: Cape Town
Date Date: 12 May 2018
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R58 Million

A woman in her 50s celebrated Mother’s Day in style with a R58 million win. She revealed that she normally only played PowerBall but decided to give Lotto a go because she noticed it was a particularly large jackpot.

She said she would only carry on working for another six months before handing over her responsibilities and taking an early retirement.

Location Location: South Africa
Date Date: 24 April 2013
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R58 Million

Two lucky ticket holders shared this R58 million Lotto jackpot, which stood as the record for the highest prize ever given away on the game for almost five years.

The jackpot was largely created by a special draw a few weeks earlier on 30 March, when the top prize was boosted to a guaranteed R40 million even though it had only been worth R1.2 million the draw before.

Location Location: Pretoria
Date Date: 24 November 2018
Winners Winners: Anonymous
Jackpot: R58 Million

The biggest Lotto Plus 1 prize of all time was split between two players, including one grandfather from Pretoria who ran organisations for the elderly and children living with disabilities.

He insisted that he would use his winnings to support his local community, having found it ‘heart-breaking’ that his charity previously did not have enough money to help out everyone as he would have liked.


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