Recently student protest action has been taking place at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and University of the Western Cape (UWC).
This action has been triggered by many different issues including the recent announcement by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to use third party service providers to pay student allowances instead of paying allowances directly to the students' bank accounts.
According to statements of NSFAS, Tenetch Technologies would be used as the service provider to distribute student allowances to seven different universities, including CPUT and UWC.
While eZaga and Noracco will be distributing student allowances to another 12 universities.
The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC) has called these service providers the "dodgy middle-man" as they say NSFAS has previously attempted to tender the distribution of allowances to service providers who did not have banking licenses. It was also revealed that these businesses did not have VAT registrations.
EFFSC has also stated that NSFAS had also advertised two bids and later cancelled them and then open a third bid for companies which were recently registered or have had no business for years until the NSFAS bids.
They say that eZaga and Tenetch Technologies form part of the "dodgy" service providers.
eZaga was registered in 2017 and Tenetch was registered in 2013 but have both remained inactive until 2021. Companies which have been recently registered include Noracco and Coinvest which were both registered in 2019.
EFFSC says that these companies emerge out of nowhere and have no meaningful experience in the financial services sector nor higher education but they are being trusted with the administration and the management of billions of Rands by NSFAS and they have been enabled by the Department of Higher Education and Training.
The student organization has expressed concern for those on the receiving end of the tenders especially students who may suffer due to high and "illogical" transaction fees.
They say that it has become a norm at many institutions for NSFAS, through these "dodgy" middle-man service providers, to pay allowances to students who are not registered at institutions in an attempt to funnel money and loot public resources which should be used to alleviate the funding crisis in the country.
Students have also protested due to the R45 000 cap on student accommodation. EFFSC says that it is cruel and nonsensical to expect poor students to pay the shortfall of their accommodation costs as in many cases this goes up to R20 000.
They are calling on NSFAS to get rid of the cap on the allowance or to impose a price-ceiling on the cost of student accommodation.
Many institutions are also withholding student's certificates and degrees if they owe the institution any fees.
This is being done even though the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Dr Blade Nzimande has ordered these institutions to stop withholding degrees and certificates from students who completed their studies but are unable to pay off their student debt.
The EFFSC has called it illogical to withhold student's degrees and block any opportunities for them to get a job and repay the debt.
They criticized Minister Nzimande for issuing a statement calling on "universities management to tighten up security in all the campuses," in response to the concerns raised by students during protests.
The EFFSC are calling for a new minister to be elected as they feel that Nzimande has failed to constructively deal with issues raised by students.
They have stated that they are standing with all students who have protested to voice their legitimate frustrations and that they will be engaging with all their SRC deployees at universities across the country to work out a response to what they call "continued arrogance and disregard for students".