NSFAS thief Sibongile Mani gets bail as her legal team prepares for appeal

Sibongile Mani is yet to start serving her five-year sentence as the National Prosecuting Authority on Wednesday confirmed that her R1,500 bail had been extended after her lawyer said she would appeal both her conviction and sentence. 

NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said Mani's bail was provisionally extended until April 11 for the appeal application to be heard.

The East London regional court had on Wednesday sentenced Mani to five years in jail after finding her guilty of theft of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme  (NSFAS)  funds that were erroneously transferred into her account.

Passing sentence,  magistrate Twannet Olivier said the court was  of the view that a suspended sentence was inappropriate.

“The only form of sentence this court deems appropriate today is that of direct imprisonment and you are therefore sentenced to a term of five years imprisonment,” Olivier said.

Tyali said Mani's sentence is subject to the provisions of Section 276 (1) i of the Criminal Procedure Act. 

“That effectively means that Mani will serve one-sixth of the sentence in custody after which, subject to the discretion of the commissioner of correctional services, she may be released to serve the rest of the sentence outside, by conditions the commissioner may deem fit,” Tyali said.

This means Mani would be eligible for parole after about 10 months.

“The state will oppose the appeal, and the arguments for the opposition will be ventilated on when the appeal is heard,” Tyali added. 

A technical glitch in 2017 led to Intellimali, the company contracted by NSFAS to make food and book allowance payments to students, erroneously transferring R14m into Mani’s account.

She qualified for a R1,400 monthly payment. The amount was credited to her during June 2017.

Mani did not report the error but instead spent R818,000 of the R14m.

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