The South African Powerball Lottery recently made the news with a very unusual sequence of winning numbers. Another abnormal element is that there were 20 winners of the main jackpot prize. If that did not arouse suspicion, the fact that there were 79 winners of the 2nd tier prize certainly arouses suspicion.
SA Powerball Winning Numbers
The fact that the winning Powerball Lottery numbers, including the Powerball, were a sequence of numbers from 5 to 10 would have been suspicious. The fact that twenty winners guessed the same numbers is highly dubious.
The Lottery operator, a company, called Ithuba countered the social media storm by insisting that many people choose sequential numbers like this. The National Lotteries Commission has announced that it would investigate and report on its findings. Be prepared for amazement.
Corruption Taints South Africa
In the last few years, South African citizens have been subject to many fiscal irregularities. Ranging from State Capture to non-delivery of services by Government and being charged excessive amounts for these services. It is easy to see why the average South African would view these lottery results with suspicion.
Add to that the taint of corruption that seems to be endemic on the African continent, and you have a recipe for disaster. South Africans have had to endure a tremendous amount of fiscal crime ranging from Government contracts to Sports bodies like SASCOC ( Sports & Olympic Committee) being subject to corruption allegations.
There have even been cases of Sports Journalists having to flee the country in fear of their lives after exposing corruption at every level.
There is no society level that the taint of corruption has not reached. It includes an ex-President to Chairman of Sporting Federations. It is easy to see why lottery players in South Africa feel that this is all a massive set up. We have been covering lottery news for years and have never seen a sequence of numbers like this.
South African National Lottery Commission Investigation
We look forward to seeing what the South African National Lottery Commission unveil as part of their findings. We dont hold out much hope that anything concrete will come out of the investigation.
Perhaps this was the most unusual sequence of numbers, and twenty people did select the winning numbers. We do not think that this is the case, that is our opinion.
We know what we would do in this instance, we would stop playing. If manipulation of Lottery numbers is proven, we will be astonished, and in our opinion, this is what has happened.