By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The president of Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) student-wing, Jacky Nonong lambasted the justice system and alleged that it favours only those who are rich and connected. Nonong’s utterances come after Walter Sisulu University’s honours student, Sibongile Mani was sentenced to a five-year imprisonment by the East London Regional Court in Eastern Cape today.
On 1 June 2017, Mani who was using the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funds, was erroneously credited with R14 140 000 by the system, instead of being credited with R1400 for her food allowance.
The Hawks regional spokesperson, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said, on receiving the money, Mani immediately embarked on a lavish spending spree. Mgolodela further said 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. During the 2017 academic year, she was allocated R18 370 per annum towards her tuition fees and R14 000 per annum towards her food allowance by NSFAS. Both tuition and food allowance were paid directly to WSU by NSFAS,” she said.
Mgolodela said Intellimalli manages allowances on behalf of institutions, funders and sponsors. She said in 2017, the company managed food and book allowance of students who received NSFAS financial assistance on behalf of WSU.
“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 can spend their food allowance at merchants that had been approved by the university, on food and toiletry purchases only as 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,” said Mgolodela.
She said after numerous court appearances, Mani was convicted on 7 February 2022, hence her sentencing on 30 March 2022.
However, Nonong did not mince her words. She said at the F4SD Student Forum, they hold strong views that there are compelling reasons for another court of law to overturn or minimize the five-year sentence dished out to Mani.
“Today, we made an inquiry to engage the lawyers of Mani and will further engage the family in order to appeal the harsh unfair sentence imposed by court. Mani was very remorseful throughout the trial.
“We are talking about a first offender, who was the only hope of the family. We further noted that our justice system is not for the poor since it favours the rich and the few connected. The sentence disseminated on Mani is more like a death, because she has already suffered a lot mentally, now physically at the overcrowded jail cells,” she said.
Nonong further said the report by the correctional service is clear that Mani is not a flight risk, let alone danger to the community. She added that F4SD SF, will not at this stage reveal the entire legal strategy going forward, but can put it on record that this sentence will be appealed and bail application to be instituted in the interim.
Meanwhile, the NSFAS spokesperson, Kagisho Mamabolo said: “We note with great concern and disappointment, the inaccurate, irresponsible and misleading media reports regarding the involvement of NSFAS in the conviction and sentencing of Mani.
“The scheme would like to categorically state that notwithstanding the reputational damage this incident has caused NSFAS, due largely to the inaccurate reporting of this matter in the media and Parliament – NSFAS has not suffered any financial loss due to this incident.
“NSFAS had, when the incident came to light, commissioned an internal audit review of its systems and controls and confirmed that indeed no financial loss was suffered. The outcome of this review is on record.”
Mamabolo said the investigations were also conducted by the WSU and the DHET. He said the facts have revealed that the only entity that suffered financial loss due to the weakness in internal controls and systems that led to this incident was Intellimali, a service provider appointed by Walter Sisulu University.
“We also wish to confirm that NSFAS did not institute any criminal proceedings against the student as there was no basis for it to do so. The NSFAS position is that, while the student ought to have known better to not spend money they were not entitled to, criminally charging the student is irreversibly unfortunate.
“This has the effect of destroying a young person’s future, thereby unfairly allotting all the blame on the student and none on the system of the service provider that should have prevented an erroneous transaction from having to be effected,” he said.
According to Mamabolo, the service provider could have pursued other means to recover the money from the student once she completed her qualification and obtained gainful employment.
He said lastly, NSFAS was approached to furnish the Department of Correctional Services with a Victim Impact Assessment Report, which was duly submitted on 14 March 2022.
“In this report, NSFAS reaffirmed its position on the matter as articulated above,” he said.
The Guardian 