The slowness of the review of the decision to cancel those who seek funding from the fund, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the leakage of materials paid to ghost students is one of the things that made this fund placed under the administrator.
This was highlighted by the Minister of Higher Education, Mr. Buti Manamela, in response to members of the Parliamentary committee, who wanted to know the reasons for placing this fund under the administrator, Professor Hlengani Mathebula.
Manamela, who spent the political time disbanding the board until an administrator was installed, said that the lack of leadership in the fund is what made Mathebula resign.
“NSFAS is weak in terms of leadership. The Auditor General’s report revealed that this fund has paid 822 ghosts and now there are 7,805 who are still waiting for answers to claims of non-funding,” said Manamela.
He said he appointed an administrator to restore stability to the fund. He also revealed that he was receiving a lot of complaints from students complaining about many things.
“I had to take this step because of the many complaints I received about this fund. It is important to protect the students who are the beneficiaries of this fund.”
He said there are vacancies that have not been filled in the disbanded board, including those where students are to be appointed.
The chairman of the committee, Mr. Tebogo Letsie, said that the priority is that there should be stability in this fund because it helps a lot of poor students.
“If this fund did not exist, there are many poor people who would not be able to enter higher education institutions. There must be stability in this fund so that it works for the people of this country.”
He said that they have heard the reasons why Manamela put this fund under the administrator and said that he is standing by the spending that they want to be done with this fund.
“There are a number of institutions that will not even last a year if NSFAS is closed. That is why it is important to have stability and appoint experienced people to lead this fund.”
As it happens, there are differences of opinion that there is still a need to have this fund in this country as there are politicians who want it to be closed. The DA and the EFF are some of the groups that support the closure of this fund because it is not doing what it was set up for and is always plagued by problems.
The Minister of Finance, Mr. Enoch Godongwana, expressed his support for those who want this fund to be closed because it transfers work to other companies that it should not have done. He suggested that institutions should take on the task of distributing student benefits.
The committee suggested that Manamela call regular meetings with this fund to resolve existing problems immediately.