By TEMBILE SGQOLANA and SIMTHANDILE FORD
NSFAS big-spender Sibongile Mani, 27, lived a double life. While she and her student inner circle were blowing hundreds of thousands of rands on cosmopolitan puffery, Mani’s gogo back in the rural area did not see one cent of it.
Saturday Dispatch was shocked to find Nombulelo Mani, 67, living in a ramshackle half-house half-shack in Ilinge township, near Cookhouse.
Plaster has peeled from the wall revealing expanses of raw brick. Once a one-room structure, as need grew, three more rooms were added using zinc for walling.
There is no electricity. A tiny kitchen is starkly furnished with a table and home-made wooden chair. A broken window is covered with a piece of cloth. The floors are bare.
Yet, three weeks ago, when Sibongile visited her gogo, the WSU second-year student was at the height of an extraordinary 73-day cash binge.
Mani had almost blown more than R800000 of desperately needed NSFAS money.
How R14.1-million was loaded onto her voucher card apparently in error, and how the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) student leader and her band of buddies managed to turn it into so much cash, is the subject of a looming investigation by police and investigators from card company IntelliMali and Walter Sisulu University.
However, a NPA source said: “IntelliMali was meant to have laid charges against the student, but they have not done so. There is nothing that any of these investigating institutions can do without IntelliMali laying a charge.”
Yesterday, Mani’s political rivals Sasco accused her and unnamed officials of a money-laundering scam.
Sasco deployee and SRC student support services officer Samkelo Mqai claimed Mani was part of a greater scheme.
“This is definitely an inside job,” he claimed.
Nombulelo said her much-loved grandchild arrived looking like a typically down-and-out student, a far cry from the glittering Facebook party pictures which showed Mani in slinky designer clothes, drinking expensive alcohol and wearing a R3000 Peruvian weave.
She asked the Saturday Dispatch to send a message to WSU begging the university to allow her clever grandchild to finish her studies.
She pleaded: “Please don’t do anything bad to her because she did not steal the money! Why did she not come and build a house for me if she stole the money, because I am living in this shack?”
Nombulelo, who stays at the house with her grandchild Sbabalwe Malgas, said: “I support her and I want to know who deposited the money into her account because she does not have access to any money.”
She said the whole issue around her granddaughter was causing her stress.
“I came this side in March from Namaqualand. Her mother is in George and I am the only parent she was close to. When I saw her three weeks ago, I did not notice any changes with her or anything which suggested that she had money.”
Sbabalwe, Mani’s cousin, said the family remained fully behind her.
“She was here a few weeks ago and we did not notice anything glamorous about her,” he said.
Malgas said he was unemployed and hoped to move to East London to look for work.
“I want to change the situation here and connect the electricity which we don’t have living in a dilapidated house,” he said.
Mani’s friend from Ilinge, Sethu Ntenetyana, said she last saw Mani in June when Sethu was in East London attending a baby shower.
“We did not have time to speak. We separated and I went to the baby shower. I know nothing about the money and I only heard about it in the media. I frequently keep in contact with her. When the news came out, I contacted her and consoled her,” she said.
Ntenetyana said: “I am worried with how she will cope with the pressure and her studies. She is a smart and humble person who supports her friends.”
Lingelihle High principal Sandile Mata said Mani was an A student. “She was the school’s head girl. She was a humble, hard-working child,” he said.
Mata was shocked at the news and still believed an explanation will emerge.
Sandisiwe Swartbooi, Mani’s close friend, could not be reached for comment as both her phones were switched off. — Additional reporting Zingisa Mvumvu
>https://youtu.be/EtYJJzKOaDk 
Living it up while gogo suffers
NSFAS big-spender Sibongile Mani, 27, lived a double life. While she and her student inner circle were blowing hundreds of thousands of rands on cosmopolitan puffery, Mani’s gogo back in the rural area did not see one cent of it.
Saturday Dispatch was shocked to find Nombulelo Mani, 67, living in a ramshackle half-house half-shack in Ilinge township, near Cookhouse.
Plaster has peeled from the wall revealing expanses of raw brick. Once a one-room structure, as need grew, three more rooms were added using zinc for walling.
There is no electricity. A tiny kitchen is starkly furnished with a table and home-made wooden chair. A broken window is covered with a piece of cloth. The floors are bare.
Yet, three weeks ago, when Sibongile visited her gogo, the WSU second-year student was at the height of an extraordinary 73-day cash binge.
Mani had almost blown more than R800000 of desperately needed NSFAS money.
How R14.1-million was loaded onto her voucher card apparently in error, and how the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) student leader and her band of buddies managed to turn it into so much cash, is the subject of a looming investigation by police and investigators from card company IntelliMali and Walter Sisulu University.
However, a NPA source said: “IntelliMali was meant to have laid charges against the student, but they have not done so. There is nothing that any of these investigating institutions can do without IntelliMali laying a charge.”
Yesterday, Mani’s political rivals Sasco accused her and unnamed officials of a money-laundering scam.
Sasco deployee and SRC student support services officer Samkelo Mqai claimed Mani was part of a greater scheme.
“This is definitely an inside job,” he claimed.
Nombulelo said her much-loved grandchild arrived looking like a typically down-and-out student, a far cry from the glittering Facebook party pictures which showed Mani in slinky designer clothes, drinking expensive alcohol and wearing a R3000 Peruvian weave.
She asked the Saturday Dispatch to send a message to WSU begging the university to allow her clever grandchild to finish her studies.
She pleaded: “Please don’t do anything bad to her because she did not steal the money! Why did she not come and build a house for me if she stole the money, because I am living in this shack?”
Nombulelo, who stays at the house with her grandchild Sbabalwe Malgas, said: “I support her and I want to know who deposited the money into her account because she does not have access to any money.”
She said the whole issue around her granddaughter was causing her stress.
“I came this side in March from Namaqualand. Her mother is in George and I am the only parent she was close to. When I saw her three weeks ago, I did not notice any changes with her or anything which suggested that she had money.”
Sbabalwe, Mani’s cousin, said the family remained fully behind her.
“She was here a few weeks ago and we did not notice anything glamorous about her,” he said.
Malgas said he was unemployed and hoped to move to East London to look for work.
“I want to change the situation here and connect the electricity which we don’t have living in a dilapidated house,” he said.
Mani’s friend from Ilinge, Sethu Ntenetyana, said she last saw Mani in June when Sethu was in East London attending a baby shower.
“We did not have time to speak. We separated and I went to the baby shower. I know nothing about the money and I only heard about it in the media. I frequently keep in contact with her. When the news came out, I contacted her and consoled her,” she said.
Ntenetyana said: “I am worried with how she will cope with the pressure and her studies. She is a smart and humble person who supports her friends.”
Lingelihle High principal Sandile Mata said Mani was an A student. “She was the school’s head girl. She was a humble, hard-working child,” he said.
Mata was shocked at the news and still believed an explanation will emerge.
Sandisiwe Swartbooi, Mani’s close friend, could not be reached for comment as both her phones were switched off. — Additional reporting Zingisa Mvumvu
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