The South African Union of Students (SAUS) has voiced it's strong opinion that the students allegedly involved in the latest discovery of NSFAS fraud should not be criminalised.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) came under fire recently after the discovery of wrongfully allocated funds to students who did not meet the scheme's eligibility requirements.
The situation was brought to light by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), who revealed that nearly R5 billion was inappropriately distributed to around 40,000 students.
The students are from 46 tertiary institutions across the country.
The SIU has stated that these students are from households that earn more than the cut off of R350,000, and “therefore would not qualify for NSFAS funding, based on the funding rules”.
The bursary scheme has since issued a response in light of these recent revelations.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) acknowledges and welcomes the Special Investigating Unit's (SIU's) report as presented in the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) sitting held on the 18th of April 2023.
SAUS is of the view that while the students, allegedly, provided false information for their funding applications in order to gain approval they wouldn't have received otherwise, the purpose was not for greed or waste, but to access their right to higher education.
The reality is that the funds were not sought for squander but to provide these students their Constitutional right to education. They committed an unlawful error which was meant to afford them an education that would afford them an honest living, which would redeem them from the perilous clutches of poverty.
According to the SIU's report, NSFAS had failed to create and implement measures to keep track of the funds that are disbursed to tertiary institutions and the funded list of registered students.
In light of the report, SAUS has stated that it has noted the situation with "profound concern," adding that the funding landscape and the ability to continue to fund students from poor and working class backgrounds has been under strain for a few years now, and that "every last rand is critical towards broadening access into institutions of higher learning."
This lack of control within NSFAS resulted in overpayments and underpayments of funds to the different institutions from 2017 to 2019, says the bursary scheme.
SAUS pointed out that the gaps in NSFAS' systems allowed for some of these students to enter the scheme and receive wrongfully allocated funds, but that since last year NSFAS had invested in improved systems so that errors such as these can be detected.
We, however, note that since last year, NSFAS invested in improved systems in order to be able to detect some of these anomalies, such as their partnerships with the Department of Home Affairs and SARS in order to verify the legitimacy and authenticity of the information provided by applicants, in order to ensure that all approved candidates are actually within the legislative perimeters.
The students suspected to have been involved with submitting false application information are not the only cause of the R5 billion in funds mismanagement.
NSFAS officials, as well as officials at universities and colleges, are also suspected of colluding with students or for their own personal gain, which SAUS and the SIU has taken note of.
While the Union feels that the implicated students shouldn't be criminalised, and should instead work with NSFAS to pay back the funds in installments that are "reasonably affordable" for them, it feels the opposite for the officials supposedly involved, stating that "heads must roll."
The Union criticizes the student funding model that is currently in place, saying that the outcomes of the SIU's investigation are largely attributed to the "inefficient and simply ineffective student funding model for the poor and working class," which excludes missing middle students from accessing higher education that they cannot afford on their own.
SAUS is of the view that the exclusion of the missing middle has lead these implicated students (who come from households earning above the NSFAS income threshold) to participate in "ethical dilemmas and crimes", such as defrauding NSFAS.
SAUS adds that this investigation should bring on a change in the student funding model, one that will see missing middle students properly catered for.
