By Kay
Sibongile Mani woke up one day with R14 million in her bank account and her life was never the same. The Walter Sisulu University student and branch secretary of the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) from received the moola from NFSAS (the National Student Financial Aid Scheme), but it was meant be just R1400 for meals. She soon went to shopping sprees for phones, weaves, air tickets and clothes. She also threw glamorous parties for her and her friends. Her story went viral on social media after a bank receipt with over R13 million was posted anonymously on Twitter. Mani had already spent R400 000 which eventually went up to R818‚469.29.
People went to social media to show their anger at the student for spending the money and not notifying the relevant authorities about the money. Other opinions were that she could not be faulted for this because she did not steal the money, but simply found the exorbitant amount and did what many people would–she spent it.
In a joint statement, with WSU and NSFAS, IntelliMali, the company responsible for administering state loans and funds to students announced it had appointed an audit firm to carry out a forensic investigation into the matter. Intellimali also took full responsibility for the blunder and repaid the university the R800,00 Mani had already spent.
- Kay is…
