Champagne corks flew yesterday as the Daily Dispatch Win-a-Car competition winner Pamela Jacobs received the keys of her gleaming new Peugeot 208 at the dealership’s Vincent showroom.
Jacobs, 41, of Buffalo Flats, could not stop grinning as she took her new ride for a quick spin after being congratulated by Daily Dispatch editor-in-chief Bongani Siqoko and Peugeot sales executive Leona Lloyd.
Her competition entry was picked from more than 280000 entries, but Jacobs said her husband Frankie Jacobs had no doubt she would win.
“He told me the Lord would bless me and he prayed every night for me to win,” said Jacobs, who works for the department of roads and public works in Bhisho.
“I was so excited to win. I was filled with joy and crying all day.”
Her stroke of luck came at a time when she was looking at upgrading her car and just a few days after she had visited a dealership to shop for one.
“The mileage on my car is too high so I wanted a new car. I filled in about 20 entries and my sisters and I dropped them off at the Dispatch last Sunday afternoon just before cut-off time.
“We were joking with others who came to drop their entries off saying the car was ours and they should not waste their time!”
Jokes aside, Jacobs said the new car would make life easier for her and her husband and their daughters Joaquim, 15, and Zacchariah, 13.
“It will help to have two cars and we will be able to keep the other car for the girls to take driving lessons.”
Jacobs, who buys her Dispatch from a street vendor on the corner of Amalinda Main and Rosedale road every morning, failed to buy the Friday edition where her name was announced as the winner.
“I took a different route to give someone a lift to school, but on the way to Bhisho a friend sent a message to say I had won.
“I thought he was joking, but then another friend called. I just kept driving and singing and worshipping in the car.”
Dressed in Daily Dispatch colours yesterday, Jacobs said she could not wait to fetch her daughters from Cambridge High School in her prize.
Dispatch marketing manager Suren Packery said the response to the competition had been “fantastic”.
“This is the fourth year in partnership with Peugeot and, once again, we’ve had a phenomenal response. We would like to thank all of our readers throughout the Eastern Cape for their support.
“The Daily Dispatch will be running several great competitions so look out for those in the coming months.”