Walter Sisulu University student Sibongile Mani, convicted of stealing NSFAS funds after R14m was paid into her account in error, will hear her fate on Wednesday.
The amount that should have been paid was her monthly stipend of R1,400.
On Tuesday, the state and defence made their closing arguments to the court. East London regional court magistrate Twanett Olivier postponed sentencing to Wednesday.
Mani’s lawyer called for a suspended sentence, while the state wanted to see Mani serve 15 years in jail.
Mani, 31, was convicted last month of theft of nearly R1m from the money deposited into her student account in error by Intellimali, a NSFAS service provider, in 2017.
Mani’s attorney, Asanda Pakade, made an impassioned plea for his client, a WSU honours degree student based at the Komani campus, for a suspended sentence.
Within hours of the money going into her account, Mani had spent more than R20,000, and went on to splurge more than R800,000 until her account was frozen on August 14.
Pakade said Mani had suffered “mentally and otherwise”, since the incident.
“We are not dealing here with a career criminal. This was just an unfortunate incident. The accused has already suffered.
“One may say it was poor judgment on the part of the accused ... Ordinarily, the accused is a law-abiding citizen ... She regrets the events that unfolded after the error took place.
“Already she had two qualifications under her name. After passing matric the accused could not proceed straight to university because there were no funds to take her to university.
“She is the first person in her family to have gone to university,” Pakade said.
State prosecutor advocate Jacques Cilliers gave the state’s closing argument on behalf of advocate Luthando Makoyi.
He said the fact that Mani started to spend the money immediately was highly aggravating, embarking on a spending spree that lasted 2½ months.
“On that first day she checked the balance of how she was spending 12 times. So it is not a question that this was not done with criminal intent.
“She was well aware, step-by-step, every time every cent was spent.”
“We are not talking about small cash here ... the effect of this theft is no small fry in the bigger scheme of things; 48 students could have benefited that year.
“This spending spree did not stop because of the accused’s own actions. It was stopped because Intellimali discovered the error and stopped the card.
“There is no mention in any of the reports that she regrets committing the crime of theft.
“The pre-sentence report was not subjective ... There is no excuse for spending money that is not yours.
“The state submits a minimum sentence under the circumstances would be 15 years.”
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