All 20 winners in the December 1 PowerBall draw have collected their winnings, national lottery operator Ithuba confirmed on Wednesday. They each won R5.6m.

One of the last people to come forward is a police officer from Limpopo.

The public servant said he will use a portion of his winnings to build a house for his family and will invest the rest. The officer spent R52.50 on his winning ticket.

Another winner, a Port Elizabeth man who is close to becoming a pensioner, said: “I can finally build my wife the house of her dreams. She is the only person I told about my winnings because I trust her with my life.

“We kept the ticket in the wardrobe and kept on checking it was still there until we were able to claim. I no longer have financial strains, I will spend more time on things I love doing, especially gardening,” said the winner, who spent R45 on his ticket.

A Western Cape winner, who won the jackpot using a R15 ticket wager, is dreaming about a romantic getaway.

“One special thing I’d really like to do is to take my wife on a honeymoon because we were never able to afford that after we got married,” he said.

The winning numbers from the PowerBall draw were: 8, 5, 9, 7, 6, and PowerBall 10 (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and PowerBall 10 in numerical order).

TimesLIVE