Youth Capital says that challenges at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is costing young South Africans their mental health and their futures. Careers Portal had a chat with Kristal Duncan-Williams, who is a Project Lead at the organisation, about their latest campaign.
We've looked at a number of issues over the last six years but something that's consistently been raised by our community of young people is just the issues around NSFAS.
Every year, reports of various issues, from corruption to delays which have detrimental impacts on students, are seen. "We've heard the horrific stories of young people sleeping in libraries or you know not being able to feed themselves," said Kristal.
Students getting their NSFAS allowances on time is very important but is unfortunately not a reality with most students.
People who own accommodations are saying they haven't been paid for months and they're going to have to kick these students out and that's just unacceptable.
NSFAS Board
As NSFAS 2025 applications are about to open, many are now wondering whether NSFAS is able to cope and provide funding decisions on time. One issue which could impact this is the lack of a NSFAS board.
NSFAS previously announced that they would be introducing an official NSFAS Board to oversee the financial aid scheme. In April 2024, former Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande, announced that the NSFAS Board would be dissolved due to allegations of maladministration.
Now, NSFAS has invited applications from qualifying candidates to join the new NSFAS board. Kristal says that now is the time to bring in a Board with a younger voice present.
There's many young people who have Master degrees and have the experience who it would be really great to have on the board and so we encourage young people to apply for that. We want to see a board appointed that can be objective, that's qualified to do the job of steering the organization in the right direction.
The organisation hopes that the incoming Board would be well-equipped to deal with issues plaguing the financial aid scheme, which includes administrative issues. NSFAS has also grown to fund over a million students annually with concerns being raised about whether current NSFAS systems can accommodate the large number of students needing assistance.
"The number of students that NSFAS is supporting is growing tremendously and the system hasn't really been designed to keep up with that", said Kristal, saying that there are "very practical operational administrative issues that that need to be addressed".
Another issue Youth Capital wants to call NSFAS to order about is the billions of rands being mismanaged every year, saying "how many students could have been funded with that money? It's just unacceptable".
Youth Unemployment In South Africa Is A Crisis
Over 40% of youth in South Africa are unemployed and it's no secret that a contributing factor is issues at NSFAS. If students aren't able to focus on their studies due to funding issues, this then could negatively impact the drop out rate in the country and inevitable, worsen the unemployment rate.
Kristal says that lack of understanding is a contributing factor as well:
Lack of understanding of what it means to be young and the struggles that young people face ... engage with young people because I think young people's voices and experiences, as with many things, is not present enough.
"Many decision makers are far from young and are disconnected about what it means to be young in 2024 ... put the benefits of students ahead of everything else."
Youth Capital is calling NSFAS to order - and they want to hear from you! What was your experience with NSFAS? Complete this survey
