A 63-year-old grandmother of five who can neither read nor write is in a state of disbelief after becoming SA’s latest multimillionaire‚ bagging almost R57m in the National Lottery.
Gladys Nchabeleng* said whenever she played the Lotto‚ she randomly selected numbers from the rows on the betting sheet.
“I looked at the Lotto paper and started writing ... and then wrote on the second line.
“I cannot even see well. I was just guessing where the numbers are‚” Gladys said.
Clothed in a modest dress‚ blue shoes and a doek, with her children around her‚ Nchabeleng said she had religiously played the Lotto over the last five to six years.
“I thought since I don’t get pension‚ some luck may come my way,” she said.
“I would joke about how my R5 [that I used to play the Lotto] was enriching other people. I would also say that perhaps the lottery is helping other people with this money.”
The most she had ever won before was about R50.
But whatever winnings she had in the past‚ she would use to bet on the next lottery game.
Asked how she discovered she was a winner‚ she said her eldest daughter checked her ticket and one by one the numbers that were being read out matched those on her ticket.
“As she called the numbers out‚ I got up and said ‘God has answered my prayers, we have won the Lotto’‚” Gladys said.
Her daughter had danced in celebration.
The entire family did not get a wink of sleep that night.
They travelled to the Ithuba offices the next day to claim their winnings.
Gladys, who bought her ticket in Germiston‚ was still in disbelief‚ saying that the excitement was yet to kick in. “My life will be beautiful.
“I will be able to go to the best doctors and get good medication‚” she said‚ revealing that she had a chronic illness.
“I will get transport to town. I will get to eat food which is eaten by other people.”
Until now‚ she had depended on her husband for income. “My husband had odd jobs. “He was a sole provider and he could buy us mealie meal every now and then‚” she said.
One of Gladys’s biggest dreams was to fly.
She plans to get on a flight to Cape Town.
She also plans to build houses for her five children and enrich her village.
“We live in mountains where there are no roads. As the rains come‚ cars cannot pass, so I want to fix the roads.”
But for now‚ this elderly woman says she plans to keep the news of her winnings among her immediate family.
Asked how she would keep her family from fighting over her new-found wealth, she said: “The money is mine.
“They won’t fight over it. [I’ve told them] ‘if you guys fight‚ I will put that money in my account and give it away to the state’.”
Gladys says she will not be able to stop playing the Lotto.
“It is now in my blood to play‚” she said with a laugh.
*Not her real name.
Humble granny hits R57m jackpot
Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock
A 63-year-old grandmother of five who can neither read nor write is in a state of disbelief after becoming SA’s latest multimillionaire‚ bagging almost R57m in the National Lottery.
Gladys Nchabeleng* said whenever she played the Lotto‚ she randomly selected numbers from the rows on the betting sheet.
“I looked at the Lotto paper and started writing ... and then wrote on the second line.
“I cannot even see well. I was just guessing where the numbers are‚” Gladys said.
Clothed in a modest dress‚ blue shoes and a doek, with her children around her‚ Nchabeleng said she had religiously played the Lotto over the last five to six years.
“I thought since I don’t get pension‚ some luck may come my way,” she said.
“I would joke about how my R5 [that I used to play the Lotto] was enriching other people. I would also say that perhaps the lottery is helping other people with this money.”
The most she had ever won before was about R50.
But whatever winnings she had in the past‚ she would use to bet on the next lottery game.
Asked how she discovered she was a winner‚ she said her eldest daughter checked her ticket and one by one the numbers that were being read out matched those on her ticket.
“As she called the numbers out‚ I got up and said ‘God has answered my prayers, we have won the Lotto’‚” Gladys said.
Her daughter had danced in celebration.
The entire family did not get a wink of sleep that night.
They travelled to the Ithuba offices the next day to claim their winnings.
Gladys, who bought her ticket in Germiston‚ was still in disbelief‚ saying that the excitement was yet to kick in. “My life will be beautiful.
“I will be able to go to the best doctors and get good medication‚” she said‚ revealing that she had a chronic illness.
“I will get transport to town. I will get to eat food which is eaten by other people.”
Until now‚ she had depended on her husband for income. “My husband had odd jobs. “He was a sole provider and he could buy us mealie meal every now and then‚” she said.
One of Gladys’s biggest dreams was to fly.
She plans to get on a flight to Cape Town.
She also plans to build houses for her five children and enrich her village.
“We live in mountains where there are no roads. As the rains come‚ cars cannot pass, so I want to fix the roads.”
But for now‚ this elderly woman says she plans to keep the news of her winnings among her immediate family.
Asked how she would keep her family from fighting over her new-found wealth, she said: “The money is mine.
“They won’t fight over it. [I’ve told them] ‘if you guys fight‚ I will put that money in my account and give it away to the state’.”
Gladys says she will not be able to stop playing the Lotto.
“It is now in my blood to play‚” she said with a laugh.
*Not her real name.
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