Staff Reporter
Windhoek
A South African student at the Walter Sisulu University in Eastern Cape province was surprised to find N$14.1 million wrongly deposited in into her student account. The South African National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the equivalent of the Namibia students financial assistance fund (NSFAF), wrongly deposited the money.
And it took more than two months for NSFAS accountants to realise they are missing N$14.1 million dollars. Which they only noticed after the friends of the student – Sibongile Mani – posted bank balance receipt on Facebook.
Apparently Mani was spending large, splashing out on her close friends and hosting lavish parties. The friends, who are not close friends, got jealous and reported her. By that time, she had spent N$818,000.
To make things worse, the 27-year old Mani is also a student leader and branch secretary of the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania, a wing of the Pan African Congress. She is studying accounting.
Her comrades in the umbrella student body, South African Students Congress (Sasco) reported on her after seeing her arrive at meetings in fancy clothes and sporting new wigs. Oh, and she was now using the latest iPhone 7.
“She used to sport neat cornrows, but she had recently started wearing a R3,000 Peruvian weave,” Samkelo Mqhayi, deputy branch secretary of Sasco and SRC student support officer, told the South African media, admitting that it was him who reported Mani to the authorities.
“She also bought an iPhone 7 for herself and all her friends. She suddenly appeared at lectures wearing designer clothes. She threw surprise birthday parties for her friends and used some of the money to fly to events like the Durban July,” said Mqhayi.
“Suspicions grew after a receipt from Spar was leaked showing a balance of just over 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.”
Mani, who now has to pay back all the money, including the N$818,000 she s already spent, told TimesLive: “It’s difficult, very difficult but I will get through [it].” Asked to tell her side of the story, Mani said: “I am not ready.”