South Africa’s student support scheme needs “decisive leadership” and more “transparent processes” to regain the trust of the sector, academics have said, after it was plunged into administration for a second time in less than a decade.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which provides billions of rands to the country’s least-well-off students to help with living costs and tuition fees, has been beset with financial and governance problems.
Earlier this month, Buti Manamela, the higher education and training minister, announced he has appointed an administrator again after attempts to stabilise the organisation using ordinary mechanisms failed. The NSFAS was last put into administration in 2018.
Manamela cited weaknesses in the organisation’s management and IT system as well as unresolved student appeals and failures in student accommodation oversight as the reasons behind the action.
Students have complained they have received late or no payments from the funding body, an issue that contributed to the student riots seen throughout the country last year.
