By Staff Reporter

Outstanding Services SETA bursary payments and allowances for students at Ekurhuleni East TVET College are being processed after government intervention over delays that left some students waiting late into the academic year.

Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Yusuf Cassim said progress had been made in resolving outstanding bursary benefits for 162 qualifying students following an oversight visit to the college’s Kwa-Thema Campus on Friday.

Services SETA had allocated bursaries worth R15.6 million for 200 students at the college. Of 195 applicants, 162 were submitted as qualifying beneficiaries after screening by the college. The remaining 33 either did not meet the criteria or had outstanding documentation.

Of the 162 students, tuition fees for 145 were processed in September, while a further 17 cases remained in progress.

The college also reported that R1.98 million in outstanding allowances had been paid to 132 students during September. Another 30 students had not yet been processed because of banking or documentation problems, with the college committing to finalise those cases by October 9.

Textbooks have been provided to all Services SETA-funded students, but laptops remain outstanding. The college said procurement had been expedited and laptops were expected to be delivered by mid-October.

The intervention is the latest in a series by Cassim over delayed student funding this year. In August, the Transport Education Training Authority committed to clear outstanding allowances for 104 students after his intervention, while Central University of Technology undertook to pay accommodation allowances to 1,392 students who had been waiting since the beginning of the year. Later that month, NSFAS released R222.7 million for 2,927 Funza Lushaka bursary students following another intervention by the deputy minister.

Cassim said delays in bursary payments were a broader problem across the post-school education system.

“Students should not have to wait this far into the academic year to receive the full bursary benefits for which they qualify,” he said.

The department will also seek a report and turnaround plan on delays in issuing National N-Diploma and NCV Level 4 certificates, another issue raised during the visit.

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