SOWETAN | NSFAS must end its shameful neglect of students

The long-running maladministration soap opera at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has reached a shameful depth. The failures there now threaten not only the academic progress of the students but also their dignity, safety, and mental well-being.

Public protector Kholeka Gcaleka has rightly sounded the alarm, finding that concerns about systemic deficiencies in administration, governance, funding, co-ordination, and oversight at NSFAS are substantiated.

This is a damning indictment of an institution whose core responsibility is to ensure that financially disadvantaged students can access and complete higher education. Instead, delays or nonpayment of scheduled allowances for food and accommodation have left some beneficiaries without meals and facing eviction from privately owned accommodation.

No student should have to choose between attending lectures and having a meal. Neither should a young person who has been approved for funding live under the threat of being thrown out of their residence because an allowance has not been paid.

The public protector’s findings also raise serious concerns about fraud and exploitation. Millions of rand have reportedly been paid to students who did not qualify for funding, depriving genuinely needy beneficiaries of resources intended for them. These failures cannot be dismissed as mere administrative glitches. They reflect deeper weaknesses in governance, financial management, and oversight that have persisted for far too long.

NSFAS is already under administration after higher education and training minister Buti Manamela intervened. Yet the continuing problems suggest that placing the scheme under administration, by itself, will not resolve a crisis that has become systemic.

The government must now demonstrate urgency and accountability. The public protector’s findings should be followed by a clear action plan, firm deadlines, and transparent reporting on what is being done to correct the deficiencies. There must also be consequences where officials or other actors are found to have abused the system or failed in their responsibilities.

Most importantly, students must not continue paying the price for institutional failures. Those who qualify for financial assistance are not asking for favours. They are entitled to the support that the government has committed to providing.

The future of thousands of young South Africans depends on a functioning student financial aid system. The government cannot afford another academic year of excuses, payment delays and uncertainty.

As Gcaleka has urged, the time has come to address the problems surrounding NSFAS before they produce further avoidable disasters. Students deserve nothing less.