EASTERN CAPE | STUDENT GETS 5 YEAR JAIL SENTENCE AFTER R14 MILLION NSFAS DEPOSIT

The East London based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team was commended by the Provincial Head Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya for ensuring that Sibongile Mani (31) gets sentenced by East London Regional Court on 30 March 2022 for stealing National Student Financial Aid Scheme(NSFAS) funds. 

During the 2017 academic year, Mani who was a student at Walter Sisulu Unversity (WSU) was allocated R18 370-00 per annum towards her tuition fees and R14 000-00 per annum towards her food allowance by NSFAS. Both tuition and food allowance was paid directly to WSU by NSFAS.

Intellimalli manages allowances on behalf of Institutions, Funders and Sponsors. In 2017 Intellimalli managed on behalf of WSU the food and book allowance of students who received NSFAS financial assistance.

WSU provided Intellimalli monthly with a spread sheet of all allowances to load onto the Intellimalli system. This spread sheet provided the student number, type of allowance amount and an instruction of the period (number of months) the student must receive the allowance.

Students are allowed to spend their food allowance at merchants that had been approved by the university, on food and toiletry purchases only. All other items were prohibited. The food allowances are uploaded by Intellimalli onto the Student Registration Card as credit on behalf of WSU on a monthly basis. On 01 June 2017, Mani instead of being credited with R1400 for her food allowance, she was erroneously credited with R14 140 000.00 by the system.

On receiving the money, Mani immediately embarked on a lavish spending spree. From 1 June 2017 to14 August 2017, Mani had already spent a total amount of R818 469.20 at 48 merchants in the Eastern Cape, Johannesburg and Centurion by that time. The error was detected and her card was immediately blocked.

Intellimalli lodged a complaint with the Hawks and the matter was investigated which revealed that Mani had squandered such an amount in no time. Mani was arrested and appeared in East London Magistrate’s court where she was released on warning.

After numerous court appearances she was convicted on 07 February 2022 hence her sentencing on 30 March 2022. Mani was given 5 years direct imprisonment by East London Regional Court.

SAPS