A FORMER South African student was sentenced to five years in prison today after she went on a shopping spree with a US$1 million university scholarship that she received by mistake.

Sibongile Mani, 31, had been expecting a monthly stipend of 1,400 rand (about RM290).

When 14 million rand (RM4.1 million) showed up in her account, she went on a two-month spending whirlwind.

A court in East London sentenced Mani to five years for theft after she spent some US$56,000 (RM235,600) on clothes, a phone and partying after receiving the windfall in 2018.

The National Students Financial Aid Scheme, which aids underprivileged students, took three months to detect the error. The rest of the funds were recovered from her account.

Her sentence, which was pronounced live on television, was exceptionally harsh for a South African court. – AFP, March 30, 2022.