The SABC has announced the return of the Lotto broadcast to the national broadcaster. From April this year, South African viewers will be glued to SABC2 to see if they are instant millionaires when they tune in to watch the live lotto draw which is back on the channel after six years.

"The SABC is happy that the Lotto is back on our platforms. The public broadcaster is the perfect vehicle for this exciting initiative, as we will give more ordinary South Africans a chance to become millionaires as our reach is far and wide. We are sure that this partnership with Gidani will go a long way in changing the lives of many South Africans," said Mvuzo Mbebe, Group Executive SABC Content Enterprises.

"Gidani's commitment is to inform and involve as many eligible players as possible about the activities of the National Lottery. In order to reach these huge numbers of people, people of varying income levels, at different times of the day and night, it was decided to go with the SABC which has the broadest television footprint as well as radio stations that can give near saturation coverage," said Dr. Bongani Khumalo, Chairman and Chief Executive of Gidani.

SABC2 will broadcast the Live Lotto Draw on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1 April from 21:30 to 21:35. On Saturdays, SABC2 will broadcast the live lotto game show between 21:00 and 21:30, and this will be immediately followed by the Live Lotto Draw. In the meantime, SABC1 will resume the broadcast of the scratch card game show Wina Manje on 8 May, from 18:30 to 19:00. Wina Manje will form part of SABC1"s weekly Wednesday line up.

SABC1 and SABC3 will broadcast the winning numbers on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 21:30 and 21:45, using crawlers. The live lotto will also be shared to SABC radio station listeners as Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) radio will carry two-minute features across ten vernacular radio stations on Wednesdays and Saturdays, between 21:30 and 22:00. This will consist of the winning numbers for the night, as well as an Informal Knowledge Building (IKB) feature. SABC"s Public Commercial Stations (PCS) will do live reads of the lotto numbers immediately when they are made available.