DA condemns NSFAS chaos causing students to suffer

6 November 2023

The DA has been inundated with complaints and requests for assistance from students across the country whose allowances have not been paid yet.

We call on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to engage with all the universities to ensure that NSFAS payments are seamless and that no students are made to suffer due to administrative bungles from either the Scheme or the institutes.

More than 100 000 students preparing for and writing their final examinations now have to do so on empty stomachs with no indication of when this chaos would be solved.

NSFAS is meant to ensure impoverished students access to higher education. It’s not meant to cause undue stress and suffering.

The DA has called on the parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education to bring NSFAS back to committee to account on the issues of ghost students and give clarity on the cancellation of the direct payment contracts. The DA will be sure to insist that NSFAS also apprises the committee on how it plans to eradicate payment failures next year. Students cannot continue to suffer due the Scheme’s ineptitude.

Issued by Chantel King, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, 6 November 2023