Select Committee on Education postpones meeting after NSFAS submits documents late

The Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports and Arts and Culture postponed its meeting with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) due to late submission of the required documents to the meeting.

The meeting was supposed to take place in parliament on Wednesday 19 February.

The committee said the documents were submitted a few hours before the meeting, which could not give the members of the committee enough time to read the documents before it commenced.

The committee expressed its extreme disappointment with the management of NSFAS, saying that its failure to submit the documents on time deprived members of the committee an opportunity to fully scrutinise the documents and prepare for the engagement with NSFAS.

The chairperson of the committee, Elleck Nchabeleng, said in a statement: “You expect us to scrutinise the documents within minutes, yet you took days to compile the presentations. NSFAS officials are not serious about addressing the many challenges faced in the education sector.”

The committee is aware of maladministration challenges, reports on irregular expenditure amounting to billions, erroneous pay-outs to students and the subsequent effect on thousands of students who are beneficiaries of the NSFAS funding.

Nchabeleng said the students deserved a thorough engagement with officials who should address these challenges as a matter of urgency.

“NSFAS officials should be held liable for the funds wasted for their travelling to parliament. They came here knowing that the committee was not given ample time to engage with their presentations,” Nchabeleng said.

The meeting will be scheduled for a later date.

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