Party Over for South African Student Sibongile Mani

A student who received a staggering £850,000 instead of her usual £85 monthly grant, was forced to flee an outraged mob that disrupted a press conference she was holding to 'explain herself'. Sibongile Mani, 27, managed to spend over £50,000 on clothes, parties, booze and expensive hairdressers, and is now facing arrest and being charged with theft. She was mobbed by fellow students at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha, Eastern Cape jeering at her, shouting 'pay back the money'. The angry crowd chased her out of the building and she had to flee between cars and find safety in a police station. Mani, who was on benefits to allow her to study, was said to have undergone a Cinderella like transformation overnight after the cash blunder. She gets £85 each month put into her bank account for food and book allowances. Instead the company that administers the financial aid allowances sent £850,000.

Her corn-row hairstyle was replaced with £180-a-time Peruvian weaves and she began wearing designer outfits. £50 bottles of whisky and jetting herself and her pals round the country to wild parties followed. When the two-and-a-half-month spending spree was finally uncovered, it was found she had been blowing £666 a day ... which is a staggering amount of money in South Africa. Many thousands of students are left without any funding and cannot pursue their dream of a higher education.