Walter Sisulu University has confirmed that it had mistakenly deposited R14 million - from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme - into a student's account.
The matter came to light when the student's receipt with a multi-million rand balance was posted on social media and quickly went viral.
The NSFAS said in a brief statement that they are not responsible for such a large payment as this would be impossible.
They put the blame on the service provider Intellimali and the University to take responsibility for the blunder.
Intellimali has since taken full responsibility for this administrative and financial responsibility for the incident and promised that no student's financial aid support would be affected in any way. They called the incident "unprecedented" in their ten-year history.
It was earlier understood that she's already spent nearly R400,000 but Intellimali said the actual amount is R818 000.
The CEO Michael Ansell said the student's name is known to them and legal steps will be taken against her. He added that the blunder came to light in early August already and a fraud probe and full investigation was launched.
He said they have since deactivated the student's allowance. Ansell said the investigation proved to be complex, highly technical and time-consuming.
