Sibongile Mani, the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) student who lived her millionaire dream after National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) funds were erroneously deposited into her student account, no longer faces jail time for her theft conviction.
Mani, who was initially sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for theft, took to the high court in Makhanda to appeal against her conviction and sentence.
While her appeal against the conviction was dismissed, the court upheld her sentence appeal, thus handing her a wholly suspended five-year sentence with conditions.
The suspended sentence is on condition Mani is not convicted of an offence involving fraud or theft during the suspension.
She was also sentenced to three years’ correctional supervision on conditions, including that she performs 576 hours of community service, attends regular counselling and may not leave Komani without the approval of correctional services.
Mani was found guilty of theft by the East London regional court in March 2022, five years after Intellimali, a company contracted by Nsfas to disburse funds to university students, deposited R14m instead of R1,400 into her account.
In two months, Mani splurged more than R800,000 at 48 shops in the Eastern Cape, Centurion and Johannesburg before her card was blocked in August 2017.
In May 2022, East London regional court magistrate Twanett Olivier granted the accounting student leave to appeal against her sentence but refused an application to appeal against her conviction.
Upon petition, Mani was granted leave to appeal against the conviction too.
Mani’s lawyer, Asanda Pakade, said they welcomed the high court’s judgment.
“We welcome the judgment delivered by the Makhanda high court that set aside the sentence of Ms Mani and substituted it with a wholly suspended sentence.
“That means Ms Mani will never go to jail for this offence.”
He said they were prepared to take the appeal further.
“It was a long and difficult journey, but it was worth it as we have achieved our primary objective, which is to keep Sibongile out of prison."
According to the recent high court judgment, passed by acting judge Sally Collett and judge Nozuko Mjali, the trial court failed to consider correctional supervision as a sentencing option.
“The trial court rejected the proposed suspended sentence, concluding the only appropriate sentence would be direct imprisonment of five years.
“This, in our view, is where the trial court erred,” the judgment reads.
Collett and Mjali’s judgment said it would be “remiss of this court not to consider the interests of [Mani’s two] minor children in accordance with the constitutional imperatives as embodied in the Constitution.”
A Special Investigating Unit investigation recently revealed the scheme incorrectly funded 3,842 Eastern Cape students by R597.8m between 2018 and 2021.
WSU spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo could not be reached for comment. Nsfas board chair Ernest Khosa had not responded to questions by the time of publication.
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