Where is Sibongile Mani now? Here’s what we know about the Walter Sisulu University student whom the East London Regional Court found guilty of theft.
Sibongile Mani was an accounting and finance student at Walter Sisulu University.
She previously worked at Telkom, Cape Town International Airport, and SITA SOC (Ltd).
While in college, Sibongile was a chairperson and secretary of Political Organization, an SRC member, and Accounting Society’s secretary. Further, she is an Active Change Drivers graduate.
Where Is Sibongile Mani Now? Nsfas Student Found Guilty
Walter Sisulu University (WSU) student Sibongile Mani is alive and out of prison on bail.
On Monday, 7 February 2022, the East London Regional Court’s magistrate, Twanette Olivier, found her guilty of thieving R818,000 (about $53 thousand) from the R14 million (about $910 thousand), which the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) accidentally credited to her account on 1 June 2017.
Reportedly, Sibongile’s share was R1,400 (about $91) for food allowance. However, she didn’t report the over-allocation and instead went on a spending spree. By the time Intellimali discovered the mistake on 13 August, she had already misappropriated R818,000.
She spent an average of R11,000 (about $715) for 73 days at 48 merchants in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Gauteng. Her purchase included household items, wardrobe, cigarettes, and liquors. Likewise, she also made expenditures on airtime from Vodacom, MTN, and Cell C.
Although Sibongile denied any intentions of using the South African governmental scheme’s money and knowledge of her loan agreement with them, the court found her side of the story unreliable after comparing the seven-page evidence provided by the prosecutor.
In May 2018, Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Unit arrested her. And Intellimali, a private company responsible for allocating NSFAS funds to students, filed theft charges against her.
Sibongile will have her sentence one month from now, on 8 March.
Sibongile Mani Age & Home
As for Sibongile Mani’s age, she is 30 years old.
Reportedly, she was 27 when she misappropriated NSFAS’s funds. With that, her birthdate is about 1990.
Sibongile’s Linkedin suggests that her home is in Johannesburg. However, she hasn’t made her whereabouts official.
Nonetheless, 2020 reports suggest that her grandmother, Nombulelo Mani, raised her in Queenstown since she was six. Similarly, her mother lived in George, Western Cape.