On Wednesday, Parliament’s higher education portfolio committee was briefed by WSU, payment company Intellimali and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Mani sparked a storm after it was discovered she had spent more than R800 000 of the R14m erroneously loaded onto her card instead of the monthly R1 400 allowance in June.
#NSFAS has been lying to students after all. They said they now deal with students directly. This debacle exposed their lies.
— Zifihlephi (@ZifihlephiMeint) September 14, 2017
Intellimali has since instituted a forensic investigation and lodged a criminal case with the SAPS.
How R14 million was loaded onto the meal card of Walter Sisulu University (WSU) student Sibongile Mani remains a mystery, with the university, financial aid and the vendor responsible for making the payment refusing to accept responsibility.
Folks be angry at Sbongile Mani 4 using the money🤔but u say she should’ve bought a house for gogo #NSFAS
— NdiliBlack (@AntiWomenAbuse) September 14, 2017
It has repaid WSU the money spent by Mani.
Briefing the committee, WSU vice-chancellor Rob Midgley described the overpayment as “extraordinary” and said it had caused enormous reputational damage.
“This has been a massive wake-up call to everyone. The institution has seriously suffered as a result.”
He said WSU was in support of any process to investigate the matter.
Then that student shouldn’t pay back the money she spent, in fact #NSFAS owe her the 13Mil they took from her, akere it’s a miracle money pic.twitter.com/Z9TZVLpX9k
— Kelebogile P Pholo (@PreciousPholo) September 14, 2017
“We are not suspecting rogue behaviour from our staff members,” Midgley added.
He said a spreadsheet of amounts due to students had been sent to Intellimali.
Someone has accidentally deposited R14.00 into my account.. What must I do?? Reverse it or just leave it there…. Could it be #NSFAS 😕 ???
— Fortunate Moloto💯 (@DoplinerMoloto) September 14, 2017
Midgley maintained it was accurate, with the names of more than 14 000 students, including Mani’s.
“We have no reason to doubt the integrity of our system,” he said.
what if this was not accidental, 1stly no one realized that 14m is missing 4 3months, 2ndly this 14m was sent to Ms Mani, Mani Money😕 #NSFAS pic.twitter.com/UfiF3sejep
— Mfundo Masuku (@mfundoboi) September 14, 2017
The error was picked up by the university’s system of reconciliation of the distribution of student funds on its campuses.
“There was a delay in reconciliation; we were handing over from campus to institutional-based systems when we picked up the discrepancy.”
NSFAS also distanced itself from the error. Intellimali chief executive Michael Ansell said the spreadsheet file was processed correctly and no error report was registered after the money was uploaded.
“There was no oversight, no error or negligence,” he said.
Committer Chair Connie September to Intelimali: “Who pressed the 6 zeros? Whose fingers were they?” #Nsfas #sabcnews
— Bulelani Phillip (@BulelaniPhillip) September 13, 2017
He added that the system feedback had confirmed Mani had received her R1 400 monthly allowance, but told how she had checked her balance several times before her spending spree.
“We have all records on her spending until we deactivated the card.”
– Political Bureau