Higher education institutions temporarily tasked to handle student allowance payments reportedly successfully processed the initial payments without any apparent delays.
National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) acting chairperson Lourens van Staden committed last week Monday that at least by Friday allowances would have been fully paid.
Some tertiary institutions such as Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley and Central University of Technology in the Free State had already started seeing disruptive protest actions over allowance and accommodation issues.
In an update on Saturday, Van Staden said 25 out of the 26 universities paid the February allowances as per their commitment dates.
“The allowances paid include the book, accommodation, transport, food and personal care allowances.
The University of South Africa (UNISA) is finalising the process of determining allowances based on the number of modules registered by students. NSFAS is grateful for the cooperation from all the universities and the Student Representative Councils, who ensured that the payment of the February allowances is implemented seamlessly.
“All the universities will also be handling the payment of the March allowance. Institutions are reminded to allow direct payment service providers to conduct the process of onboarding students whilst they continue with payments,” he said.
The NSFAS board turned to universities and requested they administer the payment of allowances for February and March to divert chaos of delays.
The direct payments of allowances for the 2024 academic year is expected to commence in April.
This decision was taken as the entity seeks a long-term solution while dealing with the contract termination of contentious fintech companies such as Tenet Technology, eZaga Holdings, Noracco Corporation and Coinvest Africa.
A Werksmans Attorneys investigation report released last year found that the appointment of the four service providers was irregular and recommended the contracts be discontinued.
In addressing some of the student accommodation issues, Van Staden said the entity will conduct sting operations in institutions to ensure that students were not exploited.
This follows allegations of corruption and bribery within some institutions involving accrediting agents, accommodation providers, officials responsible for accommodation in institutions and student leaders.
“NSFAS wishes to reiterate that this will not be tolerated and that the scheme will work with law enforcement agencies to investigate all these reported cases of corruption.”
NSFAS also said it “strongly condemns the acts of intimidation and holding of its officials hostage” at the University of Zululand on March 8.
“This incident follows the meeting held by NSFAS Board sub-committee on student accommodation, UniZulu and accommodation providers on March 5, to discuss the onboarding and payments of student accommodation.
“The meeting resolved that NSFAS will send officials to assist both students and accommodation providers in the onboarding process for students who are currently residing in various private accommodations.
This intervention was aimed to ensure that private accommodation providers are paid for all NSFAS-qualifying students who have been approved for accommodation allowances. Following this unfortunate incidence, NSFAS is considering measures to take against the accommodation providers who participated in this act of disdain at UniZulu,” he said.
Cape Times