The placing of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) under administration on Monday is a reminder of how cadre deployment continues to fail the poor.
This is a Band-Aid that will not provide a durable solution to the crisis facing this crucial public institution.
The move comes after the resignations of several members of NSFAS’s board. This opened the body, which disburses billions annually to students from poor families, to a threat that its decisions may be open to legal challenge.
Last week two directors, Mugwena Maluleke and Karabo Mohale, left.
Maluleke, general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, was acting chair of the board before his resignation.
The latest resignations come as the board is struggling to appoint a full-time CEO. The pair left on the eve of a crucial board meeting, which was due to ratify the decision to pick a CEO.
Apparently, the board couldn’t agree on two shortlisted candidates. The abrupt departure meant that the board wouldn’t be quorate, rendering its decisions inconsistent with good governance.
In his announcement, Buti Manamela, the embattled higher education & training minister, didn’t dwell on the wrangling around the CEO appointment. The divisions centred on the two candidates, Busani Ngcaweni and Waseem Carrim.
Ngcaweni recently left his job as the principal of the National School of Government (NSG), while Carrim became interim CEO of NSFAS last year after leaving his job as head of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
Like most of the NSFAS board, both men are close to the ANC.
The leadership crisis means that the ANC’s controversial deployment policy, challenged by the DA and other opposition parties, is alive and kicking.
The policy has notoriously produced questionable appointments that fail the poor.
Since inception, NSFAS has been dogged by controversy including governance issues, political meddling and allegations of financial mismanagement.
Service providers, such as those providing accommodation, regularly complain about late or nonpayments.
Hlengani Mathebula, NSFAS’s new administrator, is the third in as many years. Mathebula, now an academic and former banker, follows Freeman Nomvalo who helped stabilise the institution a few years ago.
Mathebula can appoint experts to help him, but the board’s selection remains the government’s prerogative.
Ideally, student financial aid should be disbursed by public universities. But their capacity is woefully weak for such a complex undertaking.
The task of administering billions requires a strong, experienced leader of unimpeachable integrity to head up NSFAS. The government’s capacity to set up and run large organisations has been hollowed out, a shocking reality 32 years after the end of apartheid.
NSFAS and the South African Social Security Agency aren’t the only public institutions battling to fulfil their public good mandate. The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Sector Education & Training Authorities are also struggling with governance and disbursing aid to intended beneficiaries.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the CEO of the UIF, an agency of the labour department, was suspended due to mismanagement allegations.
It took private sector intervention to effectively and efficiently disburse unemployment relief to workers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Which brings us to the NSFAS crisis. Placing it under administration is again a Band-Aid. A medium-term solution should be roping in the private sector to help distribute the funds while a search for a suitable CEO is relaunched.
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.