In an exclusive interview with News24 on Tuesday, the North West woman who won a whopping R38 million in Wednesday's Lotto draw, said despite the massive bump in her bank account, her life would - for the most part - carry on as before. 

The office worker played a R20 wager on the FNB banking app, bagging R38 364 068.10 for her troubles. 

A regular punter, who always plays using the Quick Pick method, said the most she had won before was about R400. 

"I still can't believe it," said the soft-spoken woman. "I have been playing the lottery for what seems like forever. I play every week - Lotto and PowerBall.

"Most of the time I don't check the numbers because your winnings are usually paid into your bank account. But this time, the following day, a man from FNB called me to tell me that I won. I initially thought I had won around R52 000, but the man said he could not tell me how much I had won - I needed to visit [lottery operator] Ithuba's offices. But then I checked the numbers... I almost fell down! I couldn't believe it..."

North West's latest multi-millionaire has no plans to tell anyone apart from close family members about her fortune. "I don't owe anyone anything," she quipped. 

Paying it forward

"After Covid, I'd most definitely like to go on a holiday. I don't know where I'll go yet, because of Covid, but I'll definitely spoil myself..."

The winner maintained that nothing in her life was going to change. 

"I'm not going to buy a Ferrari or anything like that - then all my money will be finished," she said, laughing. 

According to Ithuba, the lucky winner was the third millionaire winner in just a few weeks of the new year, and the second-largest winner of the year to date.

"We are excited to see many of our players opting to play the National Lottery on the various digital platforms that we have available, right from the comfort and safety of their homes. Our goal has always been to create convenient ways of helping our players participate in their favourite Lottery games. More importantly, we are pleased to witness lives changing for the better as a result of winning the Lottery, week after week," said Charmaine Mabuza, Ithuba's Group CEO.

News24