EDITORIAL | Nsfas students don’t deserve this shoddy treatment

There are many South Africans who owe their careers to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas).

Without this crucial funding vessel, many matriculants would not have had the chance to study further and would have been limited to a life of menial employment — or perhaps none at all.

Instead, vast numbers of people have over the years used Nsfas as a springboard to success, many now working for top companies in South Africa and aboard. Their lives have been transformed.

Nsfas was — and remains — a key conduit to upliftment, reform and betterment. It opens doors, it changes lives, it helps make dreams come true.

This makes the current troubles at the financial aid scheme — which has a massive budget of almost R50bn — so much harder to bear.

Over the past few months, frustrated students have taken to the streets to voice their unhappiness with the new student allowance payment system, which is at best erratic and at worst a dismal failure. Many students have been left out of pocket.

At the centre of the latest controversy is the contracting of several companies to administer disbursements to students.

Last Thursday university students were left fuming after Nsfas failed to pay their living, incidental and transport allowances totalling R2,735. That is a huge amount of money for a student. Without it, many are unable to get to classes and fund the basics.

We hope that an outcome is swift so that the issues plaguing the scheme can be addressed and the right people put in place to ensure students are not forced to study on empty stomachs, sleep in corridors and walk long distances to campus.

Most students only received their money on Monday, with Nsfas blaming the nonpayment on a technical glitch.

Last month, hundreds of students from three Western Cape universities marched to parliament, demanding that allowances for tuition, meals and accommodation be allocated to the institutions they are registered with.

Also last month, a group of disgruntled University of Pretoria students marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, claiming they had been unfairly defunded by Nsfas and that they were also against the new online payment system of their allowances.

This week, outgoing Stellenbosch University SRC vice-chairperson William Sezoe wrote to the SA Human Rights Commission asking it to investigate “gross and grave human rights violations perpetrated by Nsfas” bought on by the direct banking system.

After an investigation by Outa and reports in the Sunday Times, the Nsfas board has appointed a high-powered legal team to probe allegations against CEO Andile Nongogo, who has been placed on special leave.

Adv Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and attorney Sandile July from law firm Werksman Incorporated have been contracted to review the financial aid scheme’s procurement systems and processes.

On Tuesday, Nsfas chief information officer Modibedi Oliphant resigned with immediate effect after being suspended. This is believed to have followed his interview with the legal team conducting the probe. It is understood that Oliphant wrote the specifications for the tender that was awarded to the four companies contracted to administer the student allowance payments.

On Wednesday, Nsfas officials were grilled by the portfolio committee on higher education, science and innovation on its new payment system.

They told the committee the board had decided to get “external assistance to come up with a turnaround strategy” for the scheme and that it had given the legal team a month to submit a preliminary report.

Indeed, the team appointed by the board appears to be making headway. We hope that an outcome is swift so that the issues plaguing the scheme can be addressed and the right people put in place to ensure students are not forced to study on empty stomachs, sleep in corridors and walk long distances to campus. We at least owe them that.

These students are tomorrow’s leaders and captains of industry. The very least we can do is help them on their way by giving them the tools to reach their full potential.