Durban: An unemployed mother of five from Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, bagged the R14 million Lotto just in time for Christmas.
National lottery operator Ithuba said the woman bagged the Lotto jackpot from the December 8 draw.
She purchased her ticket using the manual selection, with a wager of R80.
The winner told Ithuba she had been living off a social grant, which took care of her family of five.
“I am extremely happy and grateful to have won this jackpot, I have a big family and we all still live together in our small home.
“This is an opportunity for me to move to a better area and to build a bigger house.”
Oudtshoorn, known as the "ostrich capital”, is a small town in the Little Karoo region.
The town's economy is primarily reliant on ostrich farming and the tourism industry, which has taken a severe knock as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ithuba CEO Charmaine Mabuza said the latest winner has been unemployed and struggling to make ends meet.
“The woman will finally be able to break out of social grant system, and that is the significant difference that players experience when winning any of the National Lottery’s life changing jackpots.
“The latest winner’s story is one of hope for people who depend on government’s social grants, and are unable to find employment to sustain themselves and their families.
“We offer our winners trauma counselling, as winning amounts of this magnitude for the first time in their lives, can be quite overwhelming.”
IOL