/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The Deputy Minister Department of Higher Education and Training, Dr Mimmy Gondwe welcomes the recovery of R112 million in irregular payments from NSFAS, to undeserving recipients by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).

Two days after the Ministerial leadership team in the DHET made a firm commitment to address the systemic governance issues at NSFAS, we commend the SIU for taking active steps to claw back irregular payments and send a clear message that abuse of the student funding system will not be tolerated.

421 students - from across 5 universities and 4 TVET colleges, who did not qualify to be funded by NSFAS have signed acknowledgement of debt agreements to pay back the money that was irregularly paid to them. The SIU attributes these irregular payments to weak controls within NSFAS, which resulted in overpayments and underpayments from 2017 to date.

The R112 million paid out to undeserving recipients potentially robbed 1 700 deserving students who could have been funded for at least one academic year. In a sense, there are many victims who may have dropped out or deferred their studies because they could not afford to pay the requisite academic fees. Every rand that is spent on an undeserving beneficiary robs a deserving one.

The DHET will accelerate its efforts to fix NSFAS and take the institution out of administration and ensure that only deserving students are provided with the financial support that they need.

Issued by GCIS on behalf of the Department of Higher Education and Training