NSFAS R14m error: Case against East London student postponed

There has been yet another delay in the theft case against Walter Sisulu University student Sibongile Mani, as the matter has been postponed yet again.

This is because Mani’s lawyer Asanda Pakade, had to be home for a funeral, TimesLive reports. The accused was also not present at court proceedings.

The case has since been postponed to 25 August 2020.

Mani made headlines in 2017 after she was arrested for spending more than R800 000 of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS) money.

The amount was just part of nearly R14 million which was erroneously paid into her account.

The first thing she spent the accidental money on was cigarettes and alcohol, which cost R20 000.

Mani’s 73-day spending spree

Instead of reporting what had clearly been a major error to NSFAS, Mani went on the mother of all spending sprees – splurging on things including plane tickets, gadgets and clothes, to name but a few.

Court documents show that Mani blew over R800 000 in just 73 days. It remains unknown what else she spent the money on.

Mani was the branch secretary of the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania at East London’s Postdam campus.

According to DispatchLive, Mani’s rivals from Sasco had gotten suspicious about her sudden make-over. She had apparently gone from being a plain Jane to a full on glamour girl who sported expensive hairstyles and clothes.

She even forked out thousands of rands on top of the range cellphones for her friends.

“She also bought an iPhone 7 for herself and each of all her friends. She suddenly appeared at lectures wearing designer clothes and she pimped up her crew of friends. They started looking like a musical band and she started adopting Beyonce’s style”, one is quoted as saying.

Samkelo Mqhayi, the deputy branch secretary of Sasco and SRC student support officer, told TimesLive that he knew started to suspect something was amiss after seeing a leaked receipt from Spar, which showed a remaining balance of R13.6 million.

 “I called NSFAS offices to check if this was true and NSFAS confirmed that the initial amount was R14-million. Obviously, after the slip was trending on social networks students started connecting the dots on how she has been living a luxurious life in the past few months”, Mqhayi is quoted as saying.