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Lerato Mbhiza
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has urged immediate interventions by the Department of Higher Education and Training, National Treasury, and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority on the latest National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) chaos. Deeply distressing reports paint a picture of endless chaos at NSFAS.
Last month, NSFAS introduced a direct payment method which allows them to pay student allowances directly into bank accounts.
The new payment system also allows NSFAS to speed up the defunding of undeserving beneficiaries.
Many students have expressed dissatisfaction with the new payment system, with the anger leading to protests on various university campuses nationwide.
Last week, students from the University of Pretoria and the Tshwane University of Technology and other universities marched to the Union Buildings to hand over a memorandum of demands.
The situation quickly turned violent, with frustrated students blocking roads and police firing rubber bullets to disperse them.
“NSFAS has long been infamous for delays in payments reaching students and the universities and colleges who depend upon it. Many students have been wrongly defunded by NSFAS and then have had to wait from 6 months to years for their cases to be resolved, Matthew said.
“There is no excuse in a 21st-century economy for this level of chaos to be allowed to continue. The Department of Higher Education and National Treasury need to intervene and put in place a payment system that will ensure students, universities, and colleges receive their payments timeously and without scandalous deductions by private companies profiteering at the expense of the poor.
“If such a system can exist at the South African Revenue Service, then it should not require a genius to replicate it at NSFAS. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority needs to investigate the deductions fleeced from students’ allowances by these companies and ensure that they are refunded.”
North West university second year engineering student Tumelo Boikanyo told Inside Education that the new system is not working in the best interests of student.
“Since we use Noraccoi, it is increasingly hard to access the NSFAS funds. Part of the problem is that the withdrawal fee is R150, at worst, using the mobile Application cost money- this is a direct contradiction to how banks Applications work. This new system is not wrong and the minister of education needs to do something about this,” Boikanyo said.
A University of Limpopo third year education student Koena Motloung said the new direct payment system should be reviewed immediately.
“The ezaga system is a problem because of the extra fees charged. I don’t understand why NSFAS changed the system to ezaga.”
INSIDE EDUCATION