Asive Dlanjwa spokesperson for the South African Union of Students (SAUS) says they are deeply concerned and frustrated over the ongoing crisis involving the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). This as NSFAS allowance payment delays has a severe impact on students who need this money.
While no allowance payments are expected by students in December 2023, the failure of NSFAS to pay allowances to students for November 2023 has plunged students into an extremely difficult situation.
More than one thousand students at North-West University did not receive their allowances for November 2023. Failure to pay allowances to students has left them hungry and without money to return home from their campuses.
NSFAS spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi says efforts are underway to address the challenges facing these students. They explained that NSFAS is currently consolidating data to ensure all students get the allowances they are entitled to.
NSFAS is not closed, and our service agents are not closed either. We are hard at work to ensure that no student goes home this year without their allowances being paid.
NSFAS is currently in the process of completing the year-end reconciliation of allowance data received from universities, ensuring that students receive the allowances they are entitled to.
The reconciliation process is crucial for accurately disbursing allowances and addressing any instances of over or under-disbursement. It also accommodates changes in the types of allowances students receive, such as accommodation or transport allowances, based on alterations in their living arrangements.
Mnisi said they acknowledge how severely these delays affect students. and we regret that part.
We are working very hard to make sure that such lapses do not occur going forward.
Dlanjwa, rejected the explanations provided by the NSFAS spokesperson, dismissing them as "absolute rubbish" and "nonsense." They say since the inception of the current payment system, not a single month has passed without a crisis, questioning the need for monthly beneficiary verifications.
In 2022, NSFAS revealed its plan to pay allowances directly to students. The payment system was first introduced at Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and was expanded to include universities in 2023.
The reality is that for the commencement of the current payment system, there's not a single month that has gone by without a crisis, which brings us to the conclusion that the explanation given by the spokesperson of NSFAS and the department, Mr. Mnisi, is absolute rubbish
The SAUS spokesperson argued that the challenges faced by students are not merely teething problems but indicative of broader issues, including incompetence and potential sabotage within NSFAS.
Dlanjwa raised concerns about the repeated glitches in the system, emphasising that it is inconceivable for an institution of NSFAS's magnitude to face such problems continually. They also questioned the competence of NSFAS and expressed worries about the implications for students.
We are concerned because it speaks to number one as we have said in competency and it undermines the basic mandate of the scheme to be able to carry out its responsibility to the poor and the working class
Dlanjwa acknowledged the multifaceted nature of the struggle and outlined various strategies employed by SAUS, including engagements with the Department of Higher Education and other stakeholders.
