Johannesburg - On the backdrop of weeks of student unrest over the challenges with the direct payment implemented this year by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the executive management and board will provide an update on the current state of affairs.
On Saturday, the scheme announced that the executive management, led by board chairperson Ernest Khosa, would today update the public on the current state of affairs at NSFAS.
According to a statement, NSFAS had completed funding decisions for applications received for the 2023 academic year and would provide the progress of disbursed allowances to students whose funding had been confirmed through the new direct payment system.
The update comes after student protests erupted at a number of institutions in March over the R45 000 cap for student accommodation, which left some struggling to find accommodation because they could not afford to top up their monthly rent.
In July, student representatives from institutions of higher learning across Tshwane began voicing their dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of the scheme’s new direct payment system.
Student leaders from the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), alongside the Socialist Youth Movement and the South African Students Congress (Sasco), rejected the new banking system for delays in the payment of student allowances, among other issues.
President of the Campus Student Representative Council at TUT, Keamogetswe Masike, alleged that the third-party financial service provider allocated to disburse funds, eZaga, had failed to pay meal allowances due to over 14 000 students for the past two months, despite the academic programme being in full swing.
Masike likened the new payment system to “money laundering” in broad daylight and alleged students were rejecting the new banking system and the service providers due to their lack of expertise and exorbitant banking charges levied.
Sasco said it was not against alternative payment methods and that it was important for these methods to be more convenient for students, as it claimed the current service providers were not user-friendly and swallowed as much as 15% of student allowances.
The Socialist Movement claimed that the new system had caused anxiety and frustration for poor students.
This past week, the uproar over the payment system came to the fore once more as students from the University of Pretoria, the University of Limpopo and TUT gathered at the Union Buildings demanding intervention.
The students also clashed with the police after they visited the Department of Higher Education in Tshwane, demanding intervention from the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Blade Nzimande.
The students eventually handed in their memorandum of demands to The Presidency and vowed to convene a meeting of SRC student structures over the weekend to map a way forward should the office provide no direction within seven days.
The Star