Do we really need Nsfas?

What a surprise! The man in charge of handing out free money to students got bust doing some shady things. Apparently getting paid to hand out free money isn’t lucrative enough when you want to go full cadre. The phrase “you had one job” comes to mind.

But the supply chain of this free money makes very little sense. From what I can gather, Sars gifts it to the state who in turn, pass is back to Minister Blade Nzimande and his Department of Higher Education. Blade then chucks it over to Nsfas, and it then finds some service providers and lobs it accordingly. By this time, some may be called offsides but since the ref in this game is blind that hardly matters and after admin fees, salaries, consulting agreements, year-end party budgets and toilet paper bought for the price of horse semen from somebody’s cousin, some students will get some money. Some students will use that money to study. Others seemingly build houses.

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Just looking over the process, one can’t help but wonder what Nsfas actually does. What’s the point of it? If it’s just a hub to disperse money then why would it need service providers? Shouldn’t Nsfas itself be doing the work of the service provider for the Department of Higher Education? Wasn’t that the point? Why would a whole state department need the services of a service provider who appoints services providers?

And with all these expensive links in the supply chain, how is it possible to stuff it up as royally as it has?

Wasn’t the point of free education to uplift and grant dignity and empowerment? That all seems to get thrown out the window when people would rather steal the money. Kind of reminds me of our national health system. I can’t wait to hear the plans of National Education Initiative where we all have to take out education policies to teach third year undergrads how to use Microsoft Excel.

Shame, the poor SASCO leader is in such an unfortunate position. You can tell he so badly wants to shout at his ANC buddies but knows it will affect his prospects of a cushy provincial parliamentary seat later in the year. Instead, he’s just gone for the lukewarm response of calling for a fast investigation. With that calibre of leadership, one can only laugh at the poor souls who still believe in student governance.

To make it even more entertaining, the very entity’s board is calling for scrutiny. I’m taking bets that not one member will ask what the point of their board is. I’d go further and bet that they don’t even know what they do. Also, why would you need an entire board to hand out free money at the instruction of Blade? Doesn’t the minister call the shots? What? Blade gives an instruction and then the board reviews the minister’s decision? Really, in what world does Nsfas make sense?

ALSO READ: ‘The entire Nsfas board should resign’

Here’s what we should do.

Have the department check what skills are in demand and allocate resources across the institutions accordingly. Assign one person on a senior level to oversee it. I mean, it’s just a spreadsheet that you have to update once a year and a few EFTs. Have students register with the institutions and compete for those spots allocated. Once a student is registered, we have a whole department that deals with dishing out free money too so they can run allowances through Sassa.

And boom! No faffing around. No need for a useless board. No need for Nsfas. No doors open for corruption that is borne from an entity that never needed to exist.

Unless, of course, you have some input as to what the point of Nsfas is. No? Didn’t think so.

ALSO READ: ‘They’ll be immediately funded’: Nzimande urges matric Sassa beneficiaries to apply for Nsfas