SOUTH AFRICA– South Africa’s National Lottery operator, Sizekhaya, has urged lottery players to check messages they may have dismissed as spam, as more than R120 million (approximately US$7.5 million) in Lotto and PowerBall prizes remain unclaimed, including a R93.5 million (US$5.9 million) PowerBall jackpot.

Sizekhaya Chief Operating Officer Fundi Sithebe raised the issue during a Radio 702 interview on August 27, noting that some players may fail to check their lottery numbers or overlook notifications from their banks because they assume the messages are spam.

“People have probably bought their tickets on their apps online and are just not checking the numbers, or probably thinking that it’s spam when the bank is calling them to alert them,” Sithebe said.

The largest unclaimed prize is a R93,523,480 PowerBall jackpot from the August 21, 2026 draw. The winning ticket was purchased in Molapo, Soweto, but the winner had not come forward as of August 27.

Another major prize awaiting a claimant is a R23,555,348.50 Lotto jackpot from the June 13 draw. According to Sithebe, the winning ticket was purchased through the Absa banking app.

“We’re begging people, please come get the millions,” she said.

Sithebe explained that winners of larger prizes may be contacted directly by their banks through SMS, WhatsApp or phone calls and urged players not to automatically dismiss such notifications as spam.

“Please, sometimes it’s actually not spam. It’s the real deal,” she said.

Lottery prizes must be claimed within 365 days of the winning draw. According to the National Lottery’s published guidance, prizes that remain unclaimed after the 365-day period are transferred to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) for distribution to various good causes.