IT was early in the year, on a normal working day, when 30-year-old Simbarashe Maruza saw a Schweppes advert that caught his eye while browsing through the pages of a local newspaper.
BY SILENCE CHARUMBIRA
The advert was announcing a competition that required people to collect several bottle tops to enable them to participate.
His wife, Concilia Kamota laughed at him as they enjoyed a meal in their one-roomed lodgings in Harare’s Glen View suburb.
Little did Kamota know that her husband’s efforts would one day change the fortunes of the whole family significantly.
“I had two containers at home that had the required yellow caps and I entered the competition that very day. Interestingly, I entered my wife’s details and she won a Mazoe voucher for the whole year in February at a draw that was held in Bulawayo,” said an elated Maruza.
“That gave me encouragement as last year I had won US$500 in another competition. From the hampers that we were getting every month, I managed to enter 20 times, mixing my wife’s details and mine, but I never thought I would win.”
As fate would have it, on a March 8 afternoon Kamota attended the final draw of the same competition with little hope of winning even the consolation prizes.
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“I had just attended to witness how the draws are conducted and of course for the entertainment of it,” said Kamota.
“It was solely pastime and I was so shocked to hear my husband’s name being called out. He had won a car. Even two days after that, I still can’t believe our luck.” Kamota said the car, Nissan NP 200, was a significant life changer as she had never dreamt of owning one anytime soon.
Kamota said she would have preferred to sell the car to buy a house or residential stand as they were struggling with rentals every month. But that decision, she said, would have to come from her husband, Maruza.