Fraud accusations flying after unusual South African lottery

The South African flag.
The South African flag. Photo credit: File

Accusations of fraud are flying after an unusual sequence of numbers were picked in the South African lottery.

Tuesday's PowerBall saw the numbers five, six, seven, eight and nine picked with the PowerBall being ten.

Twenty people won a $52,4330.18 share of the massive prize for correctly guessing the sequence and a further 79 people won $580.94 for guessing the first nine numbers but missing the PowerBall.

Social media users are alleging fraud, with one person saying there was "absolutely no way in hell" the draw was a coincidence.

"Mathematically it's almost impossible." 

South Africa's National Lotteries Commission has promised to look into the draw as the number combination was unprecedented.

Spokesperson Ndivhuho Mafela told AFP if there is anything wrong with the draw "we will declare that".

He says a review is underway.

While it is not uncommon for two players to share the jackpot, multiple winners are extremely rare.