By Edwin Naidu
Former Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, always insisted the glass was half full when reflecting on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme story.
He may be right. It is a fantastic story. But that is only half the narrative.
The scheme, which began and distributed R21.4 million in 1991, has mushroomed into a mega multi-billion fund, spending almost R50 billion on more than 1.1 million students this year. South Africa is investing in education.
But the fund has been plagued by one problem too many. For reasons we may never know, Nzimande consistently failed to address the issues, his actions akin to putting a plaster over a boil.
Neither has Nzimande, despite legal threats, taken the anti-corruption advocacy body Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) to court over allegations that the corruption at NSFAS went higher up. He made empty threats to sue. They have not heard from the Minister as yet.
Outa released details of tender irregularities and dubious service provider appointments involving NSFAS showing that the former board chair, Ernest Khosa, whose resignation Nzimande meekly accepted, and his colleagues made up a toothless board.
Indeed, the corruption claims and alleged links “high up” must be probed. If anyone needs to be reminded of the importance of voters, accountability should become the buzzword of the Government of National Unity.
The latest instance of NSFAS’s failure to show its books to Parliament is a fresh test for the new Minister Nobuhle Nkabane.
She has already taken them to task over their R2.5 million a month office in Cape Town, which is inaccessible to students. Their plush offices are on the waterways of Table Bay, next to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, with the city centre behind it. The Minister has ordered them to look for cheaper alternatives.
NSFAS should move to Gauteng, where most of its students reside, but plans to open offices in other parts of the country would help.
While serving millions, NSFAS has also performed a disservice to the nation through maladministration and a lack of seriousness about service delivery. Students have not been paid on time for their accommodation or meals.
Many argue that students were better served when universities managed fee disbursements prior to the formation of NSFAS.
In fact, a solution proposed in a 1996 report commissioned by the country’s first Minister of Education in democratic South Africa, Prof. Sibusiso Bengu, shows that the government spends money on studies but disregards its findings, allowing politicians to play with the future of its citizens.
The National Commission on Higher Education, led by Prof. Jairam Reddy, recommended a well-thought-out funding model for tertiary education students.
Under the model, students who could afford university fees were not to be funded; a second category, which comprised most incoming black students previously denied university education and mostly from poor backgrounds, was to be given bursaries.
A third category in the middle, who could afford partial fees, was to be given loans to be repaid on graduation and entering the world of work.
Reddy said the model worked well for a few years, although the loan repayment rate was meagre. But the model was turned on its head during the Zuma presidency and the #FeesMustFall protest campaign.
Most students expected to be fully funded, and despite a considerable increase in NSFAS funding, that was simply unaffordable.
Initially, the funds were transferred to universities and dispersed according to their student requirements. Then, at some point, the dispersing of NSFAS funds was centralised. This has led to ongoing problems, including the current ones.
“If the funding is outsourced to individual universities, they are in a better position to disperse the funds; in some cases, universities would need assistance, which can be easily provided. The whole model of NSFAS funding as currently administered needs to be revisited,” says Reddy.
The fact that NSFAS still cannot answer Parliament over its finances should set alarm bells ringing.
Minister Nkabane has pledged to ensure NSFAS is effective and does its bit for the country.
Only 50 out of 76 institutions submitted the necessary information for the 2023 academic year, delaying NSFAS’s annual report. The onus is on the fund to get its books in order.
The Minister has warned institutions of penalties if this failure continues.
Nzimande, the new Minister is right to emphasise that a stable fund will produce a labour force with critical skills to assist our economic growth and help us become a capable developmental state.
Thirty years after democracy, it’s not enough to celebrate that millions have benefited from Africa’s biggest student funding scheme when many cannot get jobs with their qualifications.
Let’s consider its economic benefits and ask why graduates supported by NSFAS are often unemployed.
A key question to consider is whether recipients of NSFAS should pay back the money so that the government can continue giving for the greater good.
I’m hopeful Minister Nkabane will do more to hold NSFAS accountable – the country needs it.
Edwin Naidu is the Editor of Inside Education.
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