Over the past few months students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) have battled with several issues regarding funding and the distribution of allowances. Delays in distributing allowances to students as well as the alleged incorrectly defunding of students has forced some institutions to temporarily suspend in-person classes and has led to protect action.
Students claim that many of them have been unfairly defunded by the NSFAS and that they were also against the new online payment system of their allowances.
Students from the University of Pretoria noted that they are demanding Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande to immediately fix the NSFAS crises.
In addition, Nsfas funded students at the Mafikeng-campus of the Northwest University held a peaceful protest on Monday to highlight the plight of students – many of whom had not been paid since July 2023.
NSFAS Funding Statuses
Students at several universities believe they were wrongfully defunded by the bursary scheme and claim that they were approved for funding for the 2023 academic year have now been defunded.
The students say they were approved by the bursary scheme and had been receiving their monthly NSFAS allowances since the beginning of the year, but payments suddenly stopped in May.
According to the scheme’s spokesperson Slumezi Skosana NSFAS’ decision to commence with a remedial process of defunding students came in response to the funding that they paid more than R5 billion to students who did not meet the eligibility criteria but received funding.
Nsfas will continue defunding students who they deem are not deserving of funding. This forms part of the financial aid scheme’s efforts to rectify funding irregularities and prevent students from wrongly benefiting from the government bursary.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) presented draft findings to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) that revealed that a staggering 76 institutions, involving approximately 40 044 students, were improperly granted bursaries between 2018 and 2021.
NSFAS Wrongfully Defunds Students
Meanwhile, many have argued that the abrupt decision to defund students is unjustifiable especially considering that many students have been wrongfully defunded.
South African Union of Students's Asive Dlanjwa says that instead of taking a blanket approach and suddenly just defunding students, NSFAS should have allowed students to present the necessary information or document to plead their case.
Dlanjwa stressed:
Our contention is that before you {NSFAS} defined even a single student invite all of them let them make the necessary representation or plead their cases and look into each case because you will then find that some of them their parents are no longer employed etc etc.
He continued: “We are still having thousands of students that are not able to access their allowances as they should have and that is currently where we are as things stand.”
Dlanjwa says that some of the information received by the SIU’s investigation report were based on information that was received at least two years back and is no longer accurate.
Furthermore, DA shadow minister of Higher Education Chantel King notes that some of those defunded students still do not know why they are no longer eligible for funding and are now being asked to vacate their institutions the accommodation.
What they should have done was to put the list of students out at institutions notifying them that, these are the information that we require of you to ensure that you are not defunded and unfortunately that did not happen.
King adds, “What is concerning that in the middle of the year a student is now faced with a situation where their access to education is now infringed.”
NSFAS To Verify Students Information
Nsfas has acknowledged that there have been complaints from students who were erroneously defunded and have expressed regret if these cases are true.
Nsfas noted, “If such cases are true, this is regrettable. A process of verifying these complaints will be immediately initiated and if proven, remedial action will be taken.”
The scheme revealed that they were currently in the process of verifying these complaints and taking appropriate action following the verification.
NSFAS Direct Payment System Concerns
The bursary scheme's implementation of a new direct payment system has not been received well by students and stakeholders alike.
In order to make the payment of Nsfas allowances easier and prevent payment delays, the scheme introduced a new direct payment solution through the NSFAS MasterCard.
NSFAS partnered with four banking service providers to bring the new payment solution to students. These service providers include Tenet Technology, Coinvest Africa, Ezaga Holdings and Norraco Corporation.
This meant that NSFAS-funded students would now be receiving a MasterCard and bank account in which they will receive their monthly NSFAS allowances.
However, since its implementation there have already been a number of complaints about the system, including students not receiving their funds, exorbitant bank charges, glitches, and unauthorised access resulting in loss of funds.
In addition, some students have already expressed frustration noting that the onboarding process has been everything but ‘seamless’, with some questioning communication around the new system and why it was introduced at universities in the middle of the academic year.
Students registered particular with the Ezaga financial provider have noted challenges with the online digital banking service.
Responding to concerns about the new payment system, Skosana said the scheme would not allow a system that was established in good faith to be muddled with activities that defeat the purpose of direct payment.
The new system is working. We started with the system last month and we were able to pay over 400 000 students in just one month. Where there have been glitches, we have encouraged students to step forward.
He notes that NSFAS is focusing on making sure that students get their allowances in a secure and safe manner as per the guidelines that they have issued.
