I got £850k uni grant instead of £85 then went on epic 73 DAY spree…I thought it was a gift from God so didn’t hold back | The Sun
A STUDENT was given an £850,000 grant by mistake instead of £85 – then spent 73 days on a wild spending spree.
Sibongile Mani, 32, called it "a gift from God" after 10,000 times the sum she was supposed to get landed in her account.
Sibongile relied on benefits to support her university degree but was left with a tricky dilemma after seeing extra zeros on her bank balance.
With 14million rand in her account, she discovered she might be one of South Africa's richest students.
She then had to choose between coughing up to the overpayment – or splashing the cash and having a wild time.
The overnight millionaire decided to put the money towards a good cause – herself.
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Sibongile ditched her shabby wardrobe for new flashy designer outfits and bought her whole friendship group the latest iPhones.
Feeling on top of the world she then swapped her cornrow hairstyle for a mega overhaul with £200-a-time Peruvian weaves.
With her fresh new look she had to go out and show it off.
Buying bottles of scotch in luxury spots and sipping on ice cold beers at her university bar at Mthatha, Eastern Cape, she partied the night away and flexed her lavish new lifestyle to the whole school.
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The spending continued for 73 days as Sibongile grew her wardrobe and friend group through impressive and generous buys.
Managing to blow a whopping £666 a day, she was spending more than 16 times the average daily wage in South Africa.
She even left a receipt behind at a shop that revealed her eye-popping bank balance.
Unsurprisingly, her display of conspicuous consumption raised eyebrows at the university and the gig was soon up.
Samkelo Mqhayi, a branch secretary of the South African Students Congress, reported her to the aid scheme which had paid her the grant – intended for food and other essentials.
“She was just suddenly spending so much," Mqhayi said.
“Her supermarket receipt which was leaked showed she had £600,000 in her account and she had been throwing parties for her friends and showering them with gifts without worry.”
A student who saw the lifestyle change in full effect noted the big differences in Sibongile the moment she became rich.
She said: “One moment Sibongile was hard-up with no money and struggling and the next she had a lavish lifestyle with seemingly no bottom to her purse.
“She became very glamorous in expensive dresses with the jewellery and the handbags and we thought she must have won the Lottery but I suppose in a way I guess she had.
“The student bar was no longer her place to go for cheap drinks but top champagne and whisky clubs were."
Sibongile had splurged around £50,000 before she was ultimately caught in the act after ten weeks.
She was arrested in 2017 and charged with theft and fraud, before being sentenced to five years in prison last year.
After realising her Kylie Jenner style spending had landed her in trouble, she took to her personal blog to write down her feelings.
She wrote: "What I am facing is not fair at all.
"The money I got in my account back then I spent it without thinking twice because God doesn't give his gifts by hand only.
"I thought it was miracle money. If only I knew at the time it would end like this.
"I am writing this with a sad heart. I will stay strong until I leave prison although it will be hard."
Her lawyer Mr Asanda Pakade appealed the sentence, arguing Sibongile was not a danger to society, accidentally got the money given to her, and didn't need to be in an already overcrowded prison system.
He said the National Student Financial Aid Scheme hadn't even noticed such a staggering amount was missing until they were told by someone else.
Appearing at the East London High Court in Makhanda, two judges later agreed to suspend the prison sentence as long as she didn't commit any form of theft or fraud in the next five years.
The mother-of-two was also told to do 14 weeks of community service and go through counselling but shockingly wasn't made to pay a single penny back.
Mr Pakade said afterwards: “She is very relieved and very happy that she does not have to go to prison and is looking to put all this behind her and start again.
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“She is putting her life – which was left in tatters – back together again and is looking forward to starting afresh and is very grateful that the court took the decisions that it took."
Sibongile has passed her degree since and qualified to become a school teacher.
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