The SA Students Congress (Sasco) has lambasted the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) for defunding non-qualifying students.
According to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), NSFAS paid more than R5 billion to students who did not qualify.
Sasco president Vezinhlanhla Simelane said they received information about the defunding a week ago and that they discovered that the approach taken by NSFAS was not correct because there were some students who were defunded but in terms of their documents, they did qualify.
He said they were supposed to go case by case to make sure they found those who did not qualify.
“We are not saying those who do not qualify must be funded, but we are saying that they should have done this case by case to understand each and every case.
“We have received complaints from students who grew up in orphanages and never met their parents, but when you link their ID numbers to their parents, their parents suggest they are still alive but have never met their parents.
“They had some supporting documents for them to be able to get NSFAS but today they have been defunded,” said Simelane.
He said it was wrong for the scheme to use a blanket approach to defund everyone.
Simelane said Sasco suggested that they must review the process and advised affected students to go back for registration for the second semester.
He said they hoped for the process to be efficient and quick so that the universities don’t close and sideline affected students who are deserving.
NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana said their starting point is all about accountability. The scheme is entrusted with public funds and they have put in place systems that are intended to root out mischief where it is found, for example false information or contradictory information that was used by people in order to be accepted as beneficiaries.
“The whole intention was to make sure that deserving students get the opportunity to be funded for their education without allowing fraudulent applicants to get through the system.
“This will normally happen at the beginning of the year when there’s profession issues to be addressed. We have taken unprecedented steps to make sure when the new application window open, we ensure that only qualifying students get funding,” said Skosana.
NSFAS over the years has had challenges, including ghost students and other corruption.
Skosana said they have expanded their system in terms of authentication and verification.
He said before, they relied on Sassa, SA Revenue Service (Sars) or Home Affairs Department data.
“We have become very robust to say that there are certain areas where people are willing to part with their information and other areas where they are not willing to part with correct information. We have increased our sharp focus on the system that we use to find people who give us wrong information in order to access the funds,” said Skosana.
Simelane earlier mentioned students who grew up in orphanages and may not have relationships with their parents could create loopholes.
Skosana said Simelane was right, adding that though their system, as much as it is robust it would not be foolproof and there were certain emotional practical aspects that it may not be able to pick up.
“Given the number involved, the system will be able to pick up a lot of inaccuracies. It is important that we mitigate this by listening to those people who would say the system say they picked up a parent who would be able to pay for me, but I’ve never seen that parent and brought up by a grandmother.
“For that purpose we have a process where they can call in and make their presentation. We would like to work with student leaders and other stakeholders,” said Skosana.