Pay up or else, students’ landlords threaten
Drama brews over lodgings crisis, with property owners still waiting to be paid for February and March
‘The situation is quite alarming because as a small property owner, how will I sustain my bond payments and student amenities?’
Students could find themselves on the streets of Nelson Mandela Bay if the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) does not settle outstanding payments to accommodation owners.
This was the warning issued by several frustrated residence owners who have been shouldering the expenses for students using the 14,000 off-campus beds in the city.
The owners have not received payment for February and March while continuing to cover costs for Wi-Fi, electricity, water and cleaning services.
Earlier this year, NSFAS started a pilot project on student accommodation, featuring a housing portal managed by Profecia IT in the Eastern Cape.
The scheme announced in the previous year its intention to assume the accreditation of residence owners or accommodation providers, a responsibility previously held by higher learning institutions.
But since the start of the year, owners say they have received conflicting statements from NSFAS, Profecia IT and institutions of higher learning.
This and the non-payments have led to threats of cutting services, while others consider evictions.
Residence Owners’ Association interim chair Duncan Monks said the association represented 14,000 off-campus beds.
He said there was a lot of confusion about who could make payments, with uncertainty created as some owners were registered with Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and others with NSFAS.
“There are about 7,000 beds that if the new system takes over would not be paid for if the university is unable to pay.
“It could result in evictions,” Monks said.
“We are trying to avoid this and have put in a proposal to state if the new company takes over there needs to be a process of mass onboarding onto the new system.
“There are owners who have indicated they may be suspending services but it has not reached evictions.
“But I know there are some interested in going to the point of evictions.”
An owner, who did not want to be named, said delayed payments were an annual occurrence.
“NSFAS consistently struggles to get things in order.
“Nothing is being communicated.
“This year, it’s worsened by NSFAS appointing new agents to take over the admin and pushing us accommodation owners to get registered on this new system. We have been told if we don ’ t register, we won ’ t get paid.
“But some of us still have contracts with NMU that are valid.
“It’s now the end of March and none of us has been paid.
“There have been rumours that the university will be paying the first two months, with NSFAS taking over after, but there has been no official communication.
“We are carrying the costs. “The owners are getting gatvol and are saying they will be cutting services and evicting.
“If we start evicting, this will create a political nightmare.
“It kind of seems like they’re forcing the owner’s hand.
“We all know what the problems are but we’re not getting solutions,” the owner said.
Another owner, who did not want to be named, said some owners had not received feedback on assessments conducted, neither had they been informed of their accreditation status.
“NSFAS wants you to apply with them again even though we applied with NMU and they assessed us.
“NSFAS wants us to apply with them and then assess 14,000 off-campus beds. They can’t do that.
“This will all lead to accommodation owners kicking students out.”
A third owner claimed that Profecia IT had said that the owners needed to speak directly with taxi associations and sort out transport for the students.
At present, subsidised transportation of students from certain shuttle points is handled by NMU.
“The service provider is saying individual owners must negotiate with the taxi associations for transport as they will not organise transport whereas, with the NMU system, the university subsidised that shuttle service for every student.”
Another owner said the situation was not sustainable as most needed to keep up with bond payments.
“The situation is quite alarming because as a small property owner, how will I sustain my bond payments and student amenities such as electricity, water, Wi-Fi and cleaners, because all these things come from you.”
Profecia IT chief executive Ebenezer Smith referred questions to NSFAS but the scheme’s spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi failed to respond.
NMU spokesperson Zandile Ngwendu said payments were a challenge every year, adding it was a sector-wide issue.
“Therefore, payments are generally made at the end of March or early April to be inclusive of April.
“The university will be making the payment for the February and March period to the service providers.
“This has been communi
cated with service providers through an association which is the communication link between the institution and the service providers,” Ngwendu said.
During a recent media briefing held by NSFAS, chief corporate services officer Sibongile Mncwabe said payment allowances for the first two months of the year would come from institutions.
“Payment of allowances will be done through two different channels.
“Universities have been requested to assist with payments for the first two months and with the TVET sector, we’re processing payments.”
During a media conference earlier this month, Mncwabe said they had provided unaccredited service providers with an opportunity to obtain accreditation.
“What we have seen is unaccredited service providers want to provide accommodation to NSFAS students.
“As NSFAS, we won’t be taking any responsibility concerning that because we have not inspected the property or graded it.
“However, when you look at the principles we’ve been talking about, we do acknowledge because of demand in student accommodation, institutions are permitted to credit unaccredited properties so that they use that process.
“We understand not many would be able to comply with rules set up in the policy. We’re making that rule to catch up,” Mncwabe said.