HARARE - Most people believe one has to be lucky to win a competition, but Losca Gwanzura, 51 has since established that there is also need for hard work.
The Eye Shot crew visited Gwanzura at her home in Glen View 3, Harare, and found her busy filling in forms for four competitions that are coming up.
She was filling in forms for Vaseline, Chibuku, Castle and Omo competitions. Chibuku has a grand prize of $20 000, Omo’s prize is a trip to Brazil, Castle has grand prizes of three Nissan cars and Vaseline has a grand prize of $175 000.
Competition forms were strewn all over her table and there was organisation in the chaos as one would notice different competition forms together.
Gwanzura said she takes filling the forms and, entering competitions as work. “This is my office from where I work hard at filling in forms for competitions. I take part in nearly every competition and I have won big and small prizes over the years.”
The elderly woman won a top-of-the-range Chevrolet car in a Coca Cola Pimped Up Ride promotion draw held in 2012. A massive number of entry forms were submitted for this competition but Gwanzura won with three others.
She recently won a trip to Dubai under an Omo washing powder competition and a cellphone in a Madison competition. What is the trick? A number of people have entered such competitions and never won in their entire lives. “I just enter a number of competition forms and I leave it to God. I don’t believe in prophets or traditional healers, I pray to God and I fill in many forms.”
Although Gwanzura acknowledges God in her winnings she said she does not testify her good fortune in church. “I don’t testify in church because this can be mistaken for bragging. I only tell my pastor and I give thanks to the Lord.”
An unemployed woman, Gwanzura said her husband, Tensen Maxwell, employed as a security guard prodded her to enter competitions.
“My husband pushed me to enter competitions and I have been doing it since 1992. I have three children and I also enter for them.
My son entered a Tanganda competition and he won $800.”
Gwanzura’s husband, Maxwell has also won a won a number of prices. He has won a set of sofas, push cart, motor bike and a radio from different competitions. Maxwell assists his wife in collecting entry forms from different shops. “He asks politely for the entry forms and he is given.
We discovered that two weeks before a competition shops will be generous with competition forms and we can get a lot of them.”
After filling the forms, Gwanzura deposits them at different shops surrounding Glen View and awaits her name to be called as a winner.
Life has not always been rosy for Gwanzura, who said she once lived in a one roomed cabin with her children. She believes God has opened doors for her at a time she needed it most.
Currently, Gwanzura lives in a house that was bought for her by her sister and brother in the Diaspora. It is a four bedroomed house and she rents out two rooms.
She has never done Lotto or horses though she said she used to dream of numbers. “I used to dream of numbers, but I would not remember them in the morning. One day I decided to put a pen and paper under my pillow so I could quickly jot down the numbers after a dream. That was the last time I dreamt of the numbers.”
However, Gwanzura sold her Chevrolet from the Coca Cola competition and she raised $25 000. She used part of the money to buy three vehicles from her son-in-law.
“My-son-in law has a garage where he buys damaged cars and fixes them. He sold me three cars and I am going to
re-sale them. My wish is to have a sound business and to build a very big house.”
Gwanzura said she bought two cows in her rural home and her mother is looking after them. “I don’t want to misuse my money, I want to invest it and one day I want to have my own business of selling cars.”