MANI CONDEMNED TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON

A Walter Sisulu University honours education degree student, Sibongile Mani has been condemned to five years in prison for the robbery of more than R800,000 National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funds. Individuals from the exhibition were sorrowful while Mani, a mother of two, stood unaffected in the dock as East London local court judge Twanette Olivier conveyed the sentence. Olivier said a suspended sentence was not reasonable, cautioned about "lost feel sorry for" and said Mani was not a casualty. "The court must force a valiantly fitting and fair sentence regardless of whether such a sentence wouldn't fulfil general assessment," Olivier said. Mani, 31, was sentenced last month for robbery after money was saved into her understudy account by mistake by Intellimali, an NSFAS service provider. More than R14m was kept in her record in 2017, rather than the R1,400 she was qualified for as a recipient. In practically no time, Mani had spent more than R20,000. She had gone overboard more than R800,000 before her record was frozen.