National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) CEO Andile Nongogo has been fired amid a R47-billion payments scandal.

On Tuesday, NSFAS officials told the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that Nongogo has been axed. 

NSFAS board chairperson Ernest Khoza told Scopa that the decision was taken late on Monday night.

"Just last night, the board took a decision to fire the CEO of NSFAS," Khoza said.

NSFAS revealed last week that a probe by law firm Werkmans Attorneys and advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi found that the suspended Nongogo, among a slew of "irregularities", had handpicked four firms to pay around 1.1-million students their R1 650 monthly allowances directly and not through tertiary institutions, which had been the previous payment method.  

Four companies responsible for directly paying NSFAS beneficiaries were named in an investigative report.

One of the implicated firms threatened legal action should it be removed from the lucrative contract.

Tenet Technologies, implicated in a brazen conflict of interest in the R47-billion NSFAS direct payment scandal, vowed to sue the state fund should it cancel its "irregular" contract.

The company threatening legal action is embroiled in a court case involving a multimillion-dollar debt.