Nothing new in the NSFAS debacle
Higher education minister Blade Nzimande has dissolved the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) board and is due to give his reasons for doing so today. It’s long overdue and comes as students around the country engage in protests against the nonpayment of allowances for tuition and accommodation. NSFAS has been plagued by scandal for several years now, notwithstanding the role it was intended to play in extending the opportunity for further study to tens of thousands of students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to improve their lives.
True to form, though, it appears the noble intention to extend access to tertiary education has fallen foul of the tendency to mismanage or loot the public purse.
The implosion of NSFAS has followed a now-familiar script. The results of an investigation, released in August last year, led to the dismissal of NSFAS CEO Andile Nongogo after it was found he irregularly sat in on the interviews conducted to appoint four private companies to distribute billions in NSFAS funds.
According to NSFAS board chair Ernest Khosa, who himself resigned from the board this week, there was a potential conflict of interest between Nongogo and the appointed companies. Due diligence procedures were ignored. The new system, introduced inexplicably in the middle of the academic year, was not tested as a pilot.
Also, late last year, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) announced it was probing payments to thousands of students who had received R5bn in funding for which they were not eligible, dating back to 2018. The SIU was also investigating a dodgy deal involving a R30m lease of a building instead of a suitable alternative for half the price.
However, much of the NSFAS scandal was brought into the public domain by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, which now claims to have explosive evidence involving alleged kickbacks paid to Khoza and Nzimande. These claims have yet to be tested.
Placing NSFAS under administration is probably the only avenue open to Nzimande as the crisis reaches a peak and students take matters into their own hands at campuses across the country. Adding to their distress is the NSFAS move to assume administration of student accommodation, which has left some students sleeping in kitchens and car parks.
The NSFAS debacle is yet another instance in which the poor, and all taxpayers, have been taken for a ride.