NSFAS blames Institutions for delays in paying allowance
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has blamed universities for delays in paying November allowances to thousands of students in various institutions across South Africa.
The student financial aid scheme was responding to an article by the Sunday Times titled ‘NSFAS leaves students starving during exams’.
In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, NSFAS says the article casts aspersion that the entity is deliberately neglecting to pay allowances to students.
Affected institutions include the University of North-West, the University of Venda, Durban University of Technology, the University of Limpopo, and the University of Cape Town.
Students and civic organisations continue to criticise the direct payment system, which has led to delays in the payment of student allowances over the past few months.
Last month, CEO Andile Nongogo was shown the door after an investigation into alleged irregularities at the entity pointed to a conflict of interest and irregular appointments.
NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana says efforts are made to ensure that the right students are paid allowances.
"For university students, tuition and allowances disbursement were initiated on 25 October.
“Unfortunately for some universities, these payments were withheld pending the finalisation of the universities’ reconciliation, which is very critical information to ensure that NSFAS disburses allowances correctly to the institutions for tuition and living allowances to students.
“This is an important measure to ensure that NSFAS accounts for each and every disbursement it makes to properly account for using public money," says Skosana.
Skosana says the board remains concerned when allowances are not paid to students and the institutions on time.
"NSFAS understands the critical importance of these funds to students and institutions. In this regard, the NSFAS apologises to all students who could not receive their allowances on time.
“The NSFAS Board is grateful to all institutions that provided students with food whilst the processes of the payment of allowances is finalised.
“The NSFAS is improving its data exchange processes with institutions to ensure seamless data integration and the registration of students onto new NSFAS direct payment systems.
“The NSFAS continues to implement its redesign of the Information Communication and Technology system, which leverages modern technologies and capabilities in order to deliver the NSFAS mandate seamlessly. NSFAS continues to review all its processes, operations and its disbursement model.”
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