‘Conniving mafias’ posing a security threat to higher education sector, says Nsfas

Alleged organised criminal groups within the student accommodation industry are posing a threat to the higher education sector.

This is according to National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas).

Nsfas appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) alongside the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which is currently investigating alleged serious maladministration at the entity, on Tuesday.

‘Mafias’

In the meeting, Nsfas chairperson Ernest Khosa revealed that “mafias” in the student accommodation sector were “conniving” with service providers.

He said this placed Nsfas in a delicate position as experiencing both a security and financial threat.

“The SIU has been able to identify some problems that are threatening the security of the sector as a whole, which are the mafias in our student accommodation areas, conniving and fraud among accommodation providers,” Khosa told the committee.

Khosa said Nsfas CEO Andile Nongogo has been receiving threatening messages.

“We saw threatening SMSes directed at the CEO of Nsfas by people who are worried about our new accommodation policies which are going to affect the way they have been conducting business so we are elated at the way the SIU is spot on these issues.”

ALSO READ: Is NSFAS sustainable? More needs to be done to help poor university students

Earlier, SIU’s chief national investigations officer Leonard Lekgetho told Scopa that Nsfas paid R5.1 billion in funding to unqualifying students.

Lekgetho indicated that there were 76 institutions with just over 40 000 students who did not qualify for bursaries from 2018 to 2021.

He also said some students were awarded the Nsfas bursary despite not submitting their parent’s details upon application.

Only students whose annual household income is under R350 000 qualify to receive funding.

“We have interviewed several affected students and parents to obtain addition information. Some students admitted that they did not qualify to receive the Nsfas funding.

“We are looking at students one-by-one so that we can able to see at what point each student did not qualify so that we can be able to determine when and how much [these] students are supposed to pay back. We also looking at the employment status of the students,” Lekgetho said.

Watch the meeting below:

Investigation

The SIU launched its Nsfas investigation into alleged corruption, maladministration, and the allocation of loans, bursaries and any other funding payable to students in September last year.

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the proclamation allowing SIU to probe the matter.

READ MORE: SIU recovers R33M from Northlink College in misused NSFAS funds

The investigation permits the SIU to pursue any applicable civil action, including action involving the cancellation of agreements, recovery of losses or undue payments made due to financial mismanagement.

The unit is also allowed to provide recommendations for possible disciplinary actions or refer criminal matters against implicated parties to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The SIU investigation, which could cost an estimated amount of R70 million, is looking at allegations between April 2016 and August 2022.