Following this past week’s dissolution of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) by the Minister of Higher Education, Training and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji has accused the NSFAS board of incompetence.
On Sunday, during a media briefing held in Pretoria, Nzimande announced the appointment of Sithembiso Freeman Nomvalo as the administrator of the scheme, while also explaining the reasons for dissolving the previous board.
Nomvalo has been tasked with taking over the governance, management and administration of NSFAS for a period of 12 months.
According to the minister, his other task also involves resolving the data integration challenges as a matter of urgency, finalising all the necessary funding decisions and outstanding payments, including student accommodation, and overseeing the opening of the 2025 online applications process.
Nomvalo has over 25 years of working experience, 17 of which were at a senior level, both in the public and private sector.
Speaking on Newzroom Afrika, Malatji welcomed the appointment of an administrator to oversee the affairs of the embattled fund, which has been at the centre of delays and non-payment of funds to students, who last week threatened a nationwide shutdown.
He said the league had long called for the board to be dismantled for its failure to administer funds to deserving students.
“We were the first to call for the minister to dissolve the board and everyone involved in delaying what has been designed to resolve socio-economic problems of the poorest of the poor... We have even gone further to say here is Postbank to deliver the services to the youth. This the commitment the ANC has made to the youth of South Africa,” he said.
During his briefing, Nzimande said part of the reason he ordered for the board to be dissolved and an administrator to be appointed was due to the board’s failure to carry out its “basic” responsibilities.
“Through various formal engagements, as minister, I have consistently raised my concerns and unhappiness with the outgone NSFAS board about the inability of NSFAS to carry out and implement some of the most basic responsibilities allocated to it,” he said.
Malatji said the board has been entangled in corruption, which he said was anti-ANC.
“The ANC is against corruption. We will fight anyone who is involved in corruption, and we do not want to be loved for that. If the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) feels the minister is corrupt, they must go and give evidence to the institutions of the state that must investigate and charge him,” he said.