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Trouble for Walter Sisulu University student over R14 M windfall

he Walter Sisulu University student who received a R14.1m NSFAS payment bonanza and spent a portion of it, faces legal action, said Intellimali, the company which facilitates student payments.

“The student, whose name is known to Intellimali, did not report the oversight, but chose rather to access the funds. When the error was discovered in early August 2017, she had misappropriated R818 000,” CEO Michael Ansell said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ansell said the R14.1m was deposited into her account in error in June 2017. It happened during a payment run to 3 500 students at Walter Sisulu University who are financed by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The overpayment was the first in 10 years of loading R5bn worth of allowances for books and food that students access with an Intellicard account. No other student was overpaid, Ansell said.

He said staff verified the figures before they were processed. All the data was correct at the time of the uploads. He said Intellimali took full responsibility and neither NSFAS nor the university were at fault.

The company had deactivated her allowance and a “complex, highly technical and time consuming” investigation was underway.

Intellimali could not be reached to comment on whether any staff members were implicated. A call requesting further information was cut off.

The university wanted to know why the company did not detect the blunder sooner and would meet Intellimali representatives to get answers.

As far as the university was concerned, the student, based at the East London campus, had to pay back the money.

NSFAS quickly distanced itself from the issue. It said on Twitter that it did not make direct payments to students and that the matter was between the payment company and the university.