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NSFAS cup and cap
Deputy Higher Education Minister Nomusa Dube-Ncube says those behind National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS) funding of over 800 deceased students must be arrested.
Dube-Ncube was responding to findings in the Auditor-General’s 2024/25 report that NSFAS made payments to students who according to Home Affairs records were deceased.
[LISTEN] ANCY L says it is outraged by the A-G’s findings that NSFAS paid bursaries to more than 800 deceased beneficiaries.
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The Deputy Minister says NSFAS has blamed this on its lapsed contract with Home Affairs which resulted in the financial aid scheme not being able to verify the status of the students.
Dube-Ncube says this is unjustifiable.
“There has to be accountability. There has to be consequences for whoever is responsible for this. We need to see arrests. We need to see people held responsible, brought to the table, with some arrests and recoveries happening. It cannot be that, in this day and age, people just get away with things while we keep following up and complaining and nothing changes. There has to be a point where we stop the rot,” she adds.
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Meanwhile, the South African Union of Students (SAUS) has also slammed NSFAS.
The student union believes the financial aid scheme is failing in its mandate, which results in financially deserving students not receiving funding.
“Every year, we face funding challenges, with many of our students being defunded due to a lack of resources, yet institutions like NSFAS are also struggling. We speak of multiple administrators who were appointed within the institution, and it seems they still have not got it right. I think the new leadership must reflect deeply on this audit finding,” says SA Union of Students Treasurer-General, Nkosinathi Mabilane.
