JOHANNESBURG — A deaf South African cleaner besieged by begging relatives after a newspaper reported he had scooped a 91 million rand (US$12 million) lottery jackpot was not the winner, the draw's organizers said on Tuesday.
National Lottery spokeswoman Thembi Tulwana said the real winner of Friday's South Africa PowerBall draw was an unnamed 43-year-old woman, and not 52-year-old Stanley Philander, a Cape Town hardware store cleaner reported to have carried off the record rollover prize.
Tulwana said Philander had bought — after the draw — a lottery ticket with the same numbers as the winning ticket, but could not explain how the mix-up had escalated into the family being moved to a secret location for their own protection.
"We are as confused as everybody else. It did not come from the National Lottery at all," Tulwana said. "Those numbers have nothing to do with the previous draw."
The Star newspaper said Philander, his wife of 12 years, Diana, who is also deaf, and their two children had been moved from their home in a poor Cape Town neighborhood to an undisclosed location after talk of their purported win spread.
Philander's sister-in-law said the family was besieged by relatives asking for a share of the winnings, and implied National Lottery officials were involved in their disappearance — something Tulwana denied.
"We don't even know where he was. All we know is that one newspaper did indicate that they have him in a safe place," she said.
Even though apartheid officially ended 16 years ago, millions of black South Africans still live a grim existence in squalid tin-shack townships lacking electricity or running water.
South Africa's lottery launched in October last year, and produced four multi-millionaires in its first month. Friday's record prize money was the result of 22 previous "roll-over" draws.
Thanks to TigerAngel for the tip.
Well, at least he knows what would happen now if he won and should be smart enough to keep quiet if he ever does win.
That must've been devastating news, no? Imagine if the alleged winner had
started buying things all over the place or even telling his bosses to shove the job.
There is a very fine line between dreaming and reality.
Oh come on now....how is a mistake like that made? It isn't. They are relatively new to the games but have made a mistake in declaring (or
identifying) the winner??? That doesn't make sense at all. Let me try that tonight...do you think I'll get anywhere?
I cast a very suspicious eye to the officials. Move him to a safe haven? Too many questions but it all just stinks.
Good point dr65.
Maybe he had the winning ticket afterall and it kind of got "accidentally switched" with someone else's when he was in the "safe haven".
That does stink.
something sounds wrong with this whole story.
I agree. Did the guy buy a fake ticket or create a fake one? Or is something else going on?
Seems like fish are swimming around that pond. Shady, Shady!!!!
The story clearly says that a newspaper reported that he was the winner, and that the lottery says he wasn't the winner. It also clearly says that he bought a legitimate ticket after the drawing that had the winning numbers from that drawing. The lottery has absolutely nothing to do with the story, other than running the lottery that the story is about.
30 seconds with google indicates that the guy either truly thought he had won or was trying to pull a scam, and caused his problems himself by going to the news with his ticket for the next drawing and claiming to be the winner.
I give this story the Fish EYE........
Yep!
What is going on with some of these poor journalists? Journalist used to mean checker/researcher; one who goes indeapth and double checks information BEFORE publishing. Truly, before writing a story, any conscientous journalist would have READ the ticket. If, after reading the timestamp AND date, the ticket didn't match the win, they should have tactfully told the ticket holder that their ticket is for a different drawing date than the draw which picked these #s. A conscientous journalist also wouldn't be able to resist indicating that it is probably unsafe for the ticket holder to incorrectly tell anyone further that they are the jackpot winner.
I hope that this journalist (and I use the title loosly) got fired since they cost the newspaper a lot of 'trust value.' If the newspaper that this journalist works for did 'relocate' this man's family, I'm not sure it will help ... it probably took him years in order to build his local clientele book-of-business. How does a small business person with a family build a new book-of-business overnight?