You’ve heard about the lottery curse, right?

It’s what happens when you win millions, and it makes your life harder instead of easier.

The curse can manifest in a lot of different ways. One guy in America blew through his money, developed a nasty drug habit, and then started robbing banks to feed it.

In 2004, a newly married couple won £2,3 million in the UK – they’re divorced now, and it wasn’t pretty.

In South Africa, a man was sentenced to 15 years in jail for stealing his dad’s lotto winnings.

I could go on and on, but we need to get to the latest manifestation of the curse.

In 2015, Ntsieni Morris Kgopana from Limpopo won almost R21 million in the National Lottery, reports TimesLIVE.

Six months later he sent a WhatsApp message to his former lover, Mohlaki Rosina Matlala, the mother of one of his seven children.

“If I get R20 million I can give all my children R1 million and remain with R13 million. I will just stay at home and not driving up and down looking for tenders,” he wrote, though he never sent her any such amounts.

The couple had broken up in 20013, and although Kgopana had little contact with his child, he did pay R1 000 maintenance every month.

However, it appeared that after he won the lottery, he denied it to Matlala, instead saying that after his pension of R600,000 paid out he would give her R100,000 to fully maintain the child permanently.

He paid the R100,000, but it was only in 2016 that the maintenance officer confirmed that he had won R20.8 million, and when confronted he sent the WhatsApp message.

He won’t be receiving the father of the year award.

In 2017, Matlala issued summons on her ex, claiming another R900 000 to make the balance of the R1 million she claimed was promised in the message.

The court case that followed looked into whether or not the WhatsApp message could be considered a legally binding contract.

The High Court in Polokwane ruled the message could be considered a contract, and ordered that Kgopana pay the money.

At first he claimed he had not won the lottery, but later finally admitted it before the start of the high court trial and confirmed this when he appealed at the SCA. In his written arguments he claimed the only reason he had sent the WhatsApp message to Matlala was “to get rid of (her)” and that he had no intention to make such a contract or offer.

The decision was appealed and, in the second round of proceedings this year, the courts ruled in Kgopana’s favour.

“The message was sent in response to a statement that (Matlala) knew that he had won the (Lotto) prize. It therefore constituted a denial that he had done so. The context thus strongly suggested that (Kgopana) never intended to agree to part with a portion of his winnings. And in its terms, the message related what the appellant could possibly do in the hypothetical future event of him receiving R20 million. It set out what the appellant might do if he received R20m,” the judge’s ruling read.

The National Lottery – dividing families since 2000.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Many lottery winners have gone on to live their best lives, including some South Africans.

The other lesson here is that WhatsApp messages aren’t always legally binding, which comes as a release to Capetonians who have been blowing off plans for years.

You’re in the clear.

[source:timeslive]