Cape Town - Parliament’s Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture has called for the Walter Sisulu University student Sibongile Mani to finish her studies, despite being convicted of R818 000 theft at the East London Regional Court on Monday.
Mani, 31, was convicted of theft when the court found that she unlawfully spent over R800 000 out of R14 million which had been erroneously paid into her student account.
She spent the money at 48 merchants in over three cities - East London, Centurion and Johannesburg, in a two month period, before her student account was blocked.
Parliament’s Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture chairperson Elleck Nchabeleng said they had noted the East London Regional Court finding Sibongile Mani guilty of theft on Monday.
Nchabeleng said Mani should be allowed to finish her studies, in order to facilitate her paying the money back.
“The committee calls on all those who are concerned to provide support to the student and that she be allowed to finish her studies,” Nchabeleng said, after stating it is a lesson for Mani that theft does not pay.
“Ms Mani is a National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) beneficiary, without whose support she will struggle to pay back the money, as well as finish her studies,” he adds.
Nchabeleng said it was preferable that Mani’s sentence includes an option into debt acknowledgement with Intellimali – the company responsible for distributing NSFAS funds to students at WSU, and the company that opened the case of theft against Mani.
In addition, Nchabaleng said Mani should be given a sentence of community service.
National Prosecuting Authority Eastern Cape spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani said Mani was currently out on bail, as the case is postponed to March 8 for the pre-sentence report.
IOL