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Lotto millions bring misery
08/09/2006 21:15 - (SA)
Liela Magnus, Beeld
Pretoria - A Lotto jackpot does not mean joy and happiness ever after - sometimes you may not even be able to enjoy the win for too long.
This was the situation in which Isaac Setlhogo found himself after the Pretoria High Court ordered him to pay over R1.521m - about half of his winnings - to his former girlfriend.
Magdeline Tlhole sued Setlhogo for half of the jackpot that they won in January 2002. Their relationship ended because of the money.
Deputy judge president Jerry Shongwe ordered Sethlogo on Friday to also pay interest at 15.5% in arrears since January 2002 and Sethlogo further has to foot the bill for Tlhole's legal costs.
According to court depositions Tlhole and Setlhogo lived together as man and wife for six years on a plot near Potchefstroom in Northwest.
Both were illiterate but they played the Lotto every Saturday.
The two of them had a verbal agreement to share the prize money equally should they win anything.
Tlhole's cousin, William Ncapayi, normally helped them to compare their numbers with the result of the Lotto draw.
Tlhole testified that she usually paid for the Lotto tickets from her income as informal trader.
According to her, she and Setlhogo had filled in the ticket together on that day in January.
They realised on January 13 2002 that they had won the jackpot of R3.242m.
Ncapayi, Sethlogo and Sethlogo's employer, Charles Liebenberg, went to Johannesburg to collect the winnings.
Tlhole said she never saw any of the money after that.
Setlhogo had apparently said he would arrange for her to have signatory rights on the bank account but this never came about.
She left their home in 2003 after they broke up.
In a deposition Setlhogo denied that he and Tlhole had had a verbal agreement to share any prize money.
He also denied that they had completed the Lotto ticket together and said he had sole right to the prize money.
- Beeld
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