Win Beeg gets a real winner

TELECOMS

By Edith Mwale, Lusaka, Zambia

Mobile operator MTN Zambia has finally announced a G3 security guard as a genuine winner of the Win Beeg summer promotion after an initial setback that brought embarrassment to the mobile company.

The company was forced to withdraw the first winner after it emerged that Jones Ilukena, MTN’s IT specialist, manipulated the computer system to make his girlfriend Muchana Simuna winner.

MTN said then that it would rerun the draw using the same database in order to come up with a genuine winner of the K1 billion competition.

After conducting the second draw last week, G3 Security guard Emmamuel Siamulu of Mazabuka was named winner of the competition. No further details have been given so far as to how the draws were conducted except the company announcing the winner.

The company had said earlier that it would do a rerun of the competition using a different ‘fool proof’ system to avoid alleged tampering of the system.

Ilukena and Sinuma are still appearing in court to answer charges of fraud although they deny the charges. But the police have so far seized houses and vehicles from the two which they suspect were bought using the competition money.

Ilukena is accused of having developed software capable of adjusting the mobile operator’s computer system to make his girlfriend the winner of the ‘Let’s Go Beeg’ promotion.

Zambia’s three mobile phone operators MTN, Airtel and Zamtel are all involved in different forms of promotions aimed at keeping and attracting subscribers to their networks as a result of competition in the provision of mobile services.