The Department of Military Veterans is facing huge financial and administrative challenges as demand increases for its bursary programme meant to provide educational support for military veterans and their dependants, it says.
The department provides bursary schemes to enable eligible military veterans and their dependants to continue their studies. The Military Veterans Act compels the state to foster skills among, and provide educational support to, veterans and their children.
The department has thus far supported 5,800 beneficiaries to the tune of R142m against the initial budget of R26.4m in basic and tertiary education. The department had increased the budget to R50m by shifting funds from other programmes for the 2016-17 financial year, but this was still not enough, Department of Military Veterans acting director-general Max Ozinsky said.
We have noted that as we provided the education support, there are those who are trying to defraud and abuse the system including [by] inflating tuition and other fees
— Max Ozinsky
Department of Military Veterans acting director-general
The department had received about 3,800 new applications for tertiary and basic education for the 2017 academic year, Ozinsky said.
"The increased demand in education support for military veterans has presented huge financial and administrative challenges … which are being attended to through consultations with various stakeholders such as the Treasury, the departments of basic and higher education and their relevant institutions including the National Student Financial Aid Scheme," said Ozinsky.
The department also had to be vigilant against fraud.
"We have noted that as we provided the education support, there are those who are trying to defraud and abuse the system including [by] inflating tuition and other fees.
"We will be conducting a forensic audit to ensure that we eliminate fraud and deal decisively with those responsible."
Ozinsky called on other interested parties including business and labour, to support the bursary programme to "ensure that we provide quality education to military veterans and their dependants, which will go a long way in contributing
to sustainable, social and economic development of the country, as well as enhance social cohesion and national building."
Meanwhile, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande is expected to address the media on Thursday about the sector’s state of readiness and on options available to young people in 2017.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.