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Student Lives High Life After $100 Stipend Accidentally Had Four Extra Zeroes

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A South African student expecting a $100 stipend for books and food discovered a pleasant surprise when her university mistakenly deposited $1 million into her account instead, CNN reports.

The student at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) in Eastern Cape, South Africa, spent about $60,000 of the money before a fellow student alerted authorities to the error and the university blocked her account, officials said. She will now have to pay back all the money she spent.

The university deposited the $1 million, which was supposed to be a monthly stipend, June 1, and the student was not quiet about lavishly spending her accidental fortune. “She suddenly appeared at lectures wearing designer clothes and she pimped up her crew of friends,” a WSU student advisor told South Africa’s Herald.

She also “threw surprise birthday parties for her friends and showered them with expensive gifts and she used some of the money to fly to events … and managed to buy front-row seats for televised events,” the student advisor said. The cheapest liquor at those parties was Johnny Walker Gold Label, which costs about $50 in the U.S. The girl also bought herself a new iPhone 7 and paid for expensive hair weaves with the money.

The stipend was part of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme funded by the South African government, but officials for the program say the university is responsible for making the deposits.

“When a mistake occurs in these processes, it is in the hands of the university,” NSFAS said a statement. “NSFAS is not involved, except to get an official report from the university detailing what happened.”

“The student will be liable for the money she has already spent,” WSU spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo said in a statement.

“This is unacceptable that such a grave mistake as this one could occur undetected on money appropriated by Parliament,” Connie September, a member of South Africa’s parliament and chairwoman of the Committee on Higher Education and Training, said in a statement.

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