Trial of ‘millionaire NSFAS student’ postponed as lawyers mourns family member

A university accounting student who ought to face trial on the charges of theft has had her appearance postponed again in the East London magistrate’s court on Friday.

Sibongile Mani’s appearance was postponed because of the death of her lawyer’s family member.

Her lawyer, Asanda Pakade is currently mourning his family member that passed away.

Mani, a Walter Sisulu University student, was also not present in court.

Mani has been parading the courtrooms since 2017 when she was charged with theft after National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) mistakenly made payment of R14m.

She allegedly spent nearly R1m of the deposit in total.

Within two hours of the accidental transfer, Mani spent R20,000 on cigarettes and alcohol.

According to her charge sheet, she spent R810,000 in 73 days after the millions were paid in June 2017.

Intellimali director Roy Jackson testified last year that a glitch had caused the system error that led to Intellimali crediting Mani with R14m instead of her monthly R1,400 allowance.

Magistrate Twanett Olivier postponed the case to August 25.