Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) is calling for the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, and Chairperson of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), Ernest Khosa, to resign after leaked recordings implicated them in corruption within the department and financial aid scheme.
A statement released by OUTA read, "Leaked voice recordings contain damning allegations about a patronage network in the Department of Higher Education, implicating the minister, NSFAS chair and several others".
If they don’t resign, we call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire them immediately.
What was said in the leaked recordings?
The leaked voice recordings revealed the following:
- Service providers allegedly paid millions of rands to the Minister and Chairperson with the the South African Communist Party (SACP) receiving R1 million. In return, tenders and protection for service providers were provided.
- A day before it was announced that Andile Nongogo, the former NSFAS CEO, would be placed on special leave, Khosa met with Thula Ntumba, husband of Tshegofatso Ntumba, who is one of two Coinvest directors.
- Khosa had the opportunity to exclude everything that would possibly create a problem for Nongogo and was aware of Nongogo’s wrongdoing in the past
- Khosa said he would make sure that they would not be caught out.
- Khosa wanted to appoint a legal firm which he could control to handle the case with irregularities found with the NSFAS direct payment system, Werksmans Attorneys
- Khosa changed the contents of a letter signed by Nongogo
- The Minister was aware of their relationships with the Fintechs and suspected that investigators were tracking their cell phones
- Should service providers contracts be cancelled, "it should be done in such a way that Coinvest would not look “guilty”"
According to OUTA, these recordings show that there is a network within the Department and NSFAS which public officials and service providers use to benefit from.
While the contracts of the four service providers have been terminated, NSFAS has not given details into what the alternative would be with thousands of students still waiting for their 2023 allowances. "It seems that Khosa did indeed heed the call not to terminate the contracts of the service providers as was discussed in the recordings, although it was one of the Werksmans’ recommendations," says OUTA.
Rudie Heyneke, OUTA’s Investigations Manager, said:
There needs to be a thorough investigation into the vast web of corruption in the higher education sector, which OUTA’s various reports and these recordings reveal.
These recordings and OUTA's findings will be handed over to authorities, including the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Public Protector, SARS and the Auditor-General’s office for investigation. OUTA has also written to President Ramaphosa asking for the removal of Blade Nzimande and Khosa.
We have approached the DHET for their comment and will add it when a response is received.
