One way or the other, something or someone will pull you down. It may be your bad habits like procrastination or vegetating on the couch, your family or even people you least expect to work against you.
This appears the message from the Special Investigating Unit's (SIU) statement that the University of Pretoria (UP) has now fully paid back about R400m due to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in unallocated funds. These funds were unallocated between 2016 and 2021.
The SIU said this week UP’s repayment brought funds recovered from higher education institutions to R937,926,351.
“The unallocated funds are due to poor control systems and a lack of reconciliation processes by the NSFAS and were not collected from institutions of higher learning. When approached by the SIU, the institutions cooperated, which led to a quick recovery process,” said SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
There are many who between 2016 and 2021 waited in vain for NSFAS to respond positively to their requests for funding. Their lives would have turned out differently had someone at NSFAS done their job
We believe Kganyago’s explanation is a tad charitable. To be clear, this is not a simple case of universities fraudulently or corruptly keeping funds meant to benefit some deserving students for themselves. It is rather a case of the costliness of inaction and poor management by both NSFAS and the various universities to poor students, particularly and the South African economy in general.
Had NSFAS management put in place control systems, these funds would have been returned to it expeditiously and quickly reallocated to benefit other students from poor families. There are many who between 2016 and 2021 waited in vain for NSFAS to respond positively to their requests for funding. Their lives would have turned out differently had someone at NSFAS done their job.
At the same time, the country expects better from universities and other institutions of higher learning. According to the SIU, the University of Johannesburg was also sitting on R311.8m until the investigators came knocking. The University of Zululand, too, needed action from investigators before sending back to NSFAS R58m. Others are the University of Mpumalanga (R33.6m) and Walter Sisulu University (R19.9m). Northlink College is the worst offender in its category, sitting on R33.3m. These are institutions entrusted with teaching students subjects like accounting and auditing, instilling a sense of prudent fiscal management. Yet it seems hard to practise what they preach.
Without belabouring the point, our focus throughout this sorry saga ought to be on students from poor families who hoped at least one of them could access higher education and change the fortunes of the entire family. While not much is expected from NSFAS itself, given the many other scandals bedevilling it, at least the universities should have made an effort to return the funds earlier upon realising they were unallocated.
The inaction on the part of universities may appear benign, and not entirely their fault, but it doesn’t make it any less devastating for the poor — more so if this slow burn is considered against increasing joblessness in the country and anaemic economic growth.
For many who can’t make it to universities and colleges, whether on account of their matric results, limited space or lack of funds (when universities are sitting on millions), the economy is not making it easier for them, too.
Even if you make it to one of the campuses based in Braamfontein, for example, you may still be shot dead as taxi bosses’ feuds spill over, making you collateral damage for simply walking the dangerous streets of Joburg as we have seen recently.
And life is no easier outside Joburg. In Emalahleni at the weekend, a TUT student lost his life after being beaten to death, allegedly by police officers who accused him and other students of public drinking after they were found drinking at the gate of residences.
Rampant criminality affects everyone in our country. If you survive one of the above, something else is still bound to get you — unless you’re really one of the lucky few.
As a country, we should stop playing Russian roulette with our children’s futures.
Universities should teach and inculcate the right behaviour through their own conduct. They are the last institutions we expect to work against poor students trying to prepare themselves to earn an honest living. They should be the last to wait for the SIU before doing right by poor students who already face myriad challenges ahead of them.
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