With pockets of student protests emerging around the country over some unpaid accommodation fees about a month into the tertiary academic calendar, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says this is a “self-made” crisis by a government that is constantly changing policies, thereby negatively affecting implementation of free higher education to those eligible.
“It is a self made emergency by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). What has been at issue is unpaid accommodation fees from last year and accommodation fees for this year. NSFAS has hijacked all student services and created a monopoly but the portals are slow and those accredited to inspect accommodation facilities are few and far between. The question is who benefits?” said Rudie Heyneke, Outa’s chief investigator on NSFAS.
There have been reports of student protests from Johannesburg in Gauteng to George in the Western Cape over NSFAS’s failure to settle student accommodation fees.
Students in Waterberg in Limpopo face “homelessness” at some TVET Colleges over this.
NSFAS has denied it is a crisis, saying it was doing the best it could.
“The claim by Outa is misleading and unfounded. NSFAS has not hijacked any student services, NSFAS is implementing its' mandate as per the NSFAS Act. Furthermore, from time to time, there are ministerial directives to the NSFAS board and management to implement. On the NSFAS accommodation pilot project, our customer experience survey has confirmed a total of 1.1-million students who visited our accommodation portal looking for private accommodation, and the majority of them have been placed through our portal,” NSFAS said in response to questions by Business Day.
In an interview, deputy higher education and training minister Buti Manamela said he was keeping a close watch on unfolding developments.
“We are keeping NSFAS accountable on delays in payments. We have now been informed that the debt (from last year) has been settled and the system is more efficient. I acknowledge that putting in a cap on accommodation has caused problems and we are looking into this. We will need to get a progress report,” Manamela said.
This comes as finance minister Enoch Godongwana prepares to present the 2025 budget this week which may include a cut in government spending on education.
Outa said the government’s ever-changing policies were a huge part of the existing problems.
“The government said there was not enough student accommodation and asked private developers to build. The government promised that it would pay the same rate for student accommodation that it paid to universities for accommodation. Then suddenly that promise was scrapped from R60,000 per student per year to R45,000. There has also been a lack transparency and feedback,” Heyneke said.
Outa said it was doing its best with the budget it had.
“This is a policy matter to ensure that government pays for the value it receives. However, NSFAS as of 2024 has commissioned a research study on the provision of conducive private student accommodation. The outcome of the study will help both government and providers to find alignment [on] what is a fair rental amount for student accommodation,” Outa said.
Heyneke said he submitted an 81-page report to the department of higher education on the challenges and possible solutions to NSFAS in 2023, but had thus far received little or no feedback.
The report, which Business Day has seen, points to serious allegations that the previous management at NSFAS were implicated in tender irregularities and that policies and systems were changed so that some could benefit to the tune of tens of millions in many transactions.
Heyneke, who is a lawyer, worked on the report for months. He has welcomed the change of leadership at NSFAS. Last week, NSFAS confirmed Waseem Carrim as its new acting CEO with immediate effect.
While the newly installed NSFAS board expressed full confidence in Carrim’s ability to “provide stability and leadership”, Heyneke said things seemed to be moving in right direction.
“[Carrim] knows what needs to be done. He seems to have dug in his heels from day one but he needs to move fast,” Heyneke said.
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