A R70 DVD player, a Lotto ticket, and a story South Africans still talk about
· The South African
Lotto winner support did not exist yet when one of South Africa’s most talked-about Lotto stories began. Others become cautionary tales that end up on national television.
Fananyana’s story is the second kind, and it began with something almost nobody would look at twice, an old DVD player nobody wanted anymore.
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He sold that DVD player for R70, spare change by any measure, and used the money to buy a single Lotto ticket at a shop in Cosmo City. On 8 January 2017, that ticket quietly made him a multi-millionaire overnight.
What happened next became one of the stories South Africans still bring up years later, not because of how much he won, but because of how quickly every single rand of that money disappeared again.
Then: a cautionary tale from I Blew It
Fananyana’s story, told on the Mzansi Magic docuseries I Blew It, is one of several cases the show has documented before Lotto winner support ever existed.
Within a day of receiving his money, he bought a Golf GTI worth R250,000, despite not knowing how to drive. He went on to buy three houses, five trucks and eight more cars. Financial advisor Walter De Wet later said a good advisor could have added real value in a case like this.
By the time his story reached television screens, the R17.4 million was gone.
Now: Lotto winner support looks very different
Nothing in Fananyana’s story suggests he had any structured financial guidance in place before the money arrived.
Today’s Lotto winners do, thanks to Sizekhaya’s Extended Support Services, structured financial advisory support paired with professional trauma counselling, designed to help winners manage sudden wealth responsibly from day one.
Sizekhaya COO Fundi Sithebe said of a recent PowerBall winner: “We are delighted for the winner and wish them every success as they begin what will undoubtedly be a remarkable new chapter in their life.”
Why this Lotto winner support matters
Whether or not stories like Fananyana’s played any part in that decision, the timing feels significant.
I think about that R70 DVD player every time I read about a new PowerBall winner, and I hope this Lotto winner support actually holds up under pressure.