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ActionSA welcomes the progress report delivered by NSFAS Administrator, Freeman Nomvalo, which provided a clear diagnosis of the many challenges plaguing the scheme and outlined the necessary steps to overhaul its management and administration to ensure it fully meets its mandate.

Following years of systemic mismanagement, the recognition of the significant task ahead in stabilising management and ensuring effective administration of NSFAS marks a welcome shift towards capacitating the institution with skilled, competent, and ethical professionals who can implement and give effect to sound governance practices.

Importantly, as a starting point for addressing the dysfunction that has plagued the institution, ActionSA reiterates our call for the strengthening of control and oversight mechanisms to prevent a repetition of the phenomenon where the scheme was reduced to a mere feeding trough for a syndicate of corrupt officials, service providers, and politicians.

A source of much of the turmoil across the higher education sector has been NSFAS’s late or non-payment of accommodation and student allowances, which necessitates that NSFAS its internal administrative practices, with a particular focus on finding a more cost-effective and efficient payment system without unscrupulous middlemen intermediaries whose greed is to the detriment of the students.

Furthermore, ActionSA welcomes the acknowledgment that NSFAS’s outdated ICT systems require an updated interface and data-sharing protocols between all stakeholders to improve the management of applications for bursaries, loans, and appeals.

While addressing the dysfunction at NSFAS will be a long-term effort, ActionSA is optimistic that the ongoing efforts are heading in the right direction and will continue to monitor progress closely to ensure that every student benefits from a functional financial aid scheme that supports, rather than hinders, their educational pursuits.

Issued by ActionSA Member of Parliament Malebo Kobe