THE life of a Limpopo man is poised to change for the better after he won R1million in the Vodacom Yebo Millionaires competition.

Lebo (not his real name) became the third person from the province to win the competition since its inception in 2005. The competition has so far produced 17 millionaires in the country.

The 23-year-old from a poor village outside Polokwane was all smiles when he was presented with a cheque in Polokwane yesterday.

He plans go back to school and complete his matric to enable him pursue a career in electrical engineering later.

Before that Lebo survived by doing odd jobs in his home village.

Lebo, who was accompanied by his mother yesterday, said he would use part of the money to help complete his father's seven-roomed house.

"I am happy to have won the prize money and hope it will change my life for the better," he said.

Lebo said he would also help to pay university fees for his young brother because it was becoming difficult for his father, who works in Pretoria.

He said he started playing the game early this year but never thought he could one day win the competition.

"I used to win airtime by playing the competition," he said.

The competition requires people to choose any nine letters of the alphabet to match the ones to be selected by the machine.

When he correctly matched the nine letters, Lebo had only used a free SMS afforded to any Vodacom subscriber in the country.

The company's regional head of sales and marketing Travis Goate said yesterday they were happy to have changed "yet another person's life".

"We will also provide financial assistance as we used to do to all our big cash winners, as our intention is to improve their lives responsibly."