Nsfas a blight on our youth’s future

One of the things destroying this country is greed… and it is the sort of greed which leaves tens of thousands of innocent victims in its wake.

And it is those innocent victims who are prevented from reaching their potential who could be the ones to make South Africa into a great nation.

We’re not talking here about the kids who drown in pit toilets and never get a chance to receive a proper education; we are talking about those intelligent youngsters who have worked hard throughout their school careers, only to have their chances of a tertiary qualification whipped out from under their noses.

Three ways in which Nsfas ‘cheats’ the disadvantaged

These are the children of disadvantaged families who cannot afford fees for universities and who rely on the National Students Financial Aids Scheme (Nsfas) to level the inequal societal playing fields for them.

And they are cheated in three ways: Through incompetence, dishonesty and corruption.

Nsfas incompetence has, as we report today, cost many students the opportunity to finish, or even begin, their tertiary studies.

Corruption within the organisation itself – and there are ongoing investigations into the misappropriation of fortunes – has shot down just as many other dreams.

ALSO READ: Nsfas financial chaos drives students to sugar daddies and crime – MP

40 000 dishonest Nsfas applicants shock

But worst of all, as the Special Investigating Unit reported earlier, dishonest applicants – as many as 40 000 of them – are claiming funds without being eligible.

That means 40 000 families among us are lying about being too poor to afford to send their kids to university – and, in doing – stealing from the youngsters who really deserve to be helped.

Future prosperity of country

That attitude not only robs the direct victims, it also, potentially, affects the future prosperity of the country. How many possibly brilliant doctors, scientists, engineers or economists will never get the chance to help change our country for the better?

ALSO READ: Wits and UFS repay over R800m in unallocated Nsfas funds to SIU