A student who has not received her allowance from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) for months has been forced into waitressing to pay for her taxi fare to college.
The 19-year-old is studying towards a qualification in human resources at Boland College in Western Cape, one of 50 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges in the country.
She said that she and 75% of her classmates, who were NSFAS beneficiaries, had not been paid their allowances for June, July and August.
This comes as NSFAS appears before the higher education portfolio committee on Wednesday to discuss, among other things, the rollout of the new direct payment system and CEO Andile Ngongogo’s leave of absence after allegations levelled against him while he was head of the Services Sector Education and Training Authority (Sseta).
A memorandum by students from Stellenbosch University, University of Cape Town, University of the Western Cape and Cape Peninsula University of Technology, handed to parliament in Cape Town on August 16, will also come under discussion.
The memorandum demanded the scrapping of NSFAS’s controversial direct payment system of allowances to TVET and university students that was outsourced to Coinvest Africa, Norraco Corporation, Tenet Technology and eZaga.
Students have accused these entities of charging exorbitant transaction fees.
The deputy chair of the students’ representative council at Stellenbosch University, William Sezoe, told TimesLIVE Premium that he wrote to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Monday asking it to investigate NSFAS “for perpetuating potential human rights and constitutional rights violations against its beneficiaries”.
Meanwhile, the Boland College student said she was waitressing on a wine farm over weekends to pay her R120 weekly taxi fare to the college.
“I am literally working to pay for taxi fare. I don’t get to see that money I am working for.”
She said that in June a group of students tried unsuccessfully to call the NSFAS call-centre.
Many students are going to bed hungry and this must be viewed as a huge human right violation perpetuated by NSFAS against the poor and most vulnerable they ought to serve.
— William Sezoe, Stellenbosch University SRC deputy chair
She even wrote a message on Facebook to NSFAS inquiring when students would receive payment but received no response
The student said she knew of peers who were going to bed on empty stomachs because they haven’t received their allowances.
“They are getting frustrated because they have not received their money. It’s affecting their studies more than NSFAS can ever imagine.”
The student who received allowances for March, April and May, said a student told her two week’s ago to inform the lecturer that she could not attend class because she did not have money for transport.
A civil engineering student from Northlink College in Bellville, Cape Town, who last received an allowance of R2,900 in April, said she was relying on her parents’ social grant to survive.
“I have a baby to take care of and it’s heartbreaking to keep asking my parents to give me money.”
The student, who is doing trimester courses, said her second trimester exams ended on August 15.
“The second trimester is over and the new one started on Monday, but we have still not received any money for last trimester.
“NSFAS said they were going to give us our allowances monthly, but this has not happened.”
Sezoe informed the SAHRC that his complaint focused on the allowances that were being paid to students by the four companies.
“Many students are going to bed hungry and this must be viewed as a huge human right violation perpetuated by NSFAS against the poor and most vulnerable they ought to serve.
“That students are now no longer able to focus their attention on their studies but are worrying about where their next meal will come from due to ineffective governance by NSFAS must be noted as a human dignity issue and hence a violation of that.”
Stated Sezoe: “We can’t accept that a child from a poor background must academically progress when they have nothing to eat while they are funded.
“We can’t expect those same students to show up in class when they were not able to bath or shower and use toiletries since they could not buy such necessities, nor can we expect a student to come to classes when they have not received their travel allowances.”
NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana did not respond to media queries at the time of publication.
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