Student leaders march to NSFAS head office over funding grievances

Members of student representative councils (SRCs) from across South Africa marched to the office of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in Cape Town yesterday (24 May 2023) to demand the resolution of grievances related to the allocation of government bursaries to students who are in financial need.

SRC leaders were leading the protest and a memorandum, including a signed statement with students’ concerns, was handed to a representative of NSFAS.

Yikumba Andreas, president of the North-West University (NWU) SRC, did not attend the protest, but is a signatory of the document. According to him the memorandum outlines what NSFAS has to do to resolve the issues NSFAS-funded students are facing.

The memorandum “serves as a way for NSFAS to acknowledge the concerns raised and that they will respond to the matter”, Andreas added.

Phiwokuhle Qabaka, SRC secretary general of Stellenbosch University, who was part of the march, told threestreamsmedia the protest was a success. According to her NSFAS had 48 hours to provide feedback on the memorandum.

“If the response is not satisfactory we will have to decide on a way forward,” she said.

Mandla-Onke Notyawa, SRC president at the University of the Western Cape, said before the march he wanted NSFAS to deal with the issues students are facing – “especially the direct payments that are not going to assist students in any way or form but instead lead to corruption”.

The protest came after a meeting on 17 May 2023 in which “SRC presidents and secretary-generals [leading student councils] reached a unanimous resolution to rise and unite in defense of students”, according to a joint statement dated 22 May 2023.

The statement says that the main concerns that will be raised in the memorandum include changing direct payment of allowances to students (instead of to universities who then allocate the funds), the potential disadvantages of third-party service providers involved with the NSFAS Bank Account system, the 60-credit requirement which holds that students who need only 60 credits to graduate will only receive learning material allowances and no longer a living or accommodation allowance, and the delay in resolving the funding appeals process. The delay has caused many students across the country to be deregistered due to a lack of finances.

The South African Union of Students (SAUS) which represents student views in the governance and enhancement of Higher Education and Training in South Africa was traditionally an ally of SRCs. The relationship between SRCs and SAUS has been tense lately.

The joint statement by campus student leaders (SRCs and secretary-generals) reads: “Our attempts to seek clarity from the SAUS and other key stakeholders have been met with nothing but arrogance and ambiguity, leaving us in a state of disarray. Furthermore, these engagements with SAUS and NSFAS have only served to expose the deeply entrenched systemic failures that perpetuate inequality and hinder the academic pursuits of deserving students.” 

Andreas said, “The South African Union of Students wasn’t attending to the messages and didn’t see it as a matter of emergency … our concerns fell on deaf ears.”

But, following the protest, Asive Dlanjwa, SAUS spokesperson, denied this claim and said the union supports the issues that the SRC leaders raised but does not believe the march was the “most efficient way to handle the issue”. According to Dlanjwa the union sent a letter to Dr Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, in which students’ problems with NSFAS were highlighted.

Various issues have emerged during the last few months. On 16 November 2022 NSFAS issued a statement in which it announced that the distribution of funds will be digitalised and that all NSFAS beneficiaries at universities and TVET colleges will receive their allowances through a NSFAS bank card from the start of the 2023 academic year. The bank card is currently in its pilot phase and has been implemented at several – but not all – universities, according to a tweet by NSFAS on 10 May 2023. 

According to the joint SRC statement, many universities in the country deposit the student allowances directly into their personal bank accounts with no service fees. “However, NSFAS wants to introduce a system that will charge students service fees for distributing allowances.”

The SRCs also questioned whether service providers will be able to ensure due diligence to prevent fraud and corruption. According to the joint statement, third-party service providers such as eZaga, Noracco, and Tenetch, the distributing partners for the digital transformation, “will reduce the quality of work provided because of corruption”.

The statement also emphasised the role tertiary institutions play in adequately providing allowances. “As soon as a student deregisters during the year, universities pick that up and discontinue the distribution of allowances. Therefore, students can register at the beginning of the year and later deregister, but they will continue to receive their allowances even when they are not students. How will these companies be able to pick up such information, or will they continue to pay students’ travel allowances and later charge them for fraud?” 

According to an NSFAS policy document, as of 2023 “students who are studying less than 60 credits towards their qualification, qualify for the learning materials allowances only”. The joint statement called this rule “another barbaric approach” that hampers the performance of students by excluding them from meal and accommodation allowances. 

The delays in finalising the appeals process are also raised in the joint statement. “Despite the passing of three long and agonising months, countless students are still trapped in a harrowing limbo, devoid of any response or resolution. The root of this crisis lies in the ill-advised decision to entrust NSFAS with the responsibility of overseeing the appeals process.”