Solidarity warns NSFAS over non-payment of students’ fees

Trade Union Solidarity has written to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) warning it to stop its alleged non-payment of tertiary institutions.

This came after Solidarity claimed several students were recently informed by their respective tertiary institutions that NSFAS “failed to pay their study fees”.

“Students depend on bursary funds to study and to complete their studies. To be informed out of the blue that one’s study fees have not been paid, comes as a huge shock, especially for a student who, as it is, cannot afford to carry this type of cost on his or her own,” Solidarity’s youth and career development manager Paul Maritz said in a statement on Wednesday.

Maritz added that this alleged failure by NSFAS “not only impacts on a student’s studies but also robs them of their futures”.

As a result, Solidarity sent the letter insisting that NSFAS resumes all its obligations immediately and undertakes to meet its contractual and statutory obligations as set out in the bursary agreement.

“These students have all applied successfully for the bursaries, but NSFAS simply stopped paying without giving any reason. Solidarity cannot allow such failure by NSFAS to be merely accepted.

“When an agreement is entered into, both parties must abide by it. Solidarity will therefore not hesitate to take further legal action should NSFAS not comply with these demands,” Solidarity head of labour law services Anton van der Bijl added.

There will be no further comment on the issue – NSFAS

NSFAS administrator Dr Randall Carolissen responded to News24, saying a legal office was dealing with the matter and there would be no further comment on the issue.

The financial aid scheme added that it has not failed to make payments to students and institutions.

“NSFAS processes allowances and tuition fees for students as per registration data received from institutions,” Carolissen added.

Meanwhile, the financial aid scheme was also a source of concern for the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology due to delays in the finalisation of the NSFAS audit by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA).

The committee said it was informed by AGSA that there was a delay in finalising the NSFAS audit and one of the reasons given by AGSA was the “unnecessarily long turnaround time by NSFAS in providing the required information to the auditors”.

“What is of serious concern is the fact that all these inefficiencies and failures to comply with the requirements of the AG[SA] in completing the audit happen[ed] during the period when the entity has been placed under administration.

“It does not engender public confidence that the situation seems to deteriorate under the watch of the administrator who was brought in to salvage the fortunes of the entity and to turn it around,” committee Chair Philly Mapulane said in a statement earlier this week.

NSFAS, however, said all the information requested by the AGSA was provided within the agreed time frames and any further requests from the AGSA were being attended to within the agreed time frame.

“Any information outstanding, is information which was outside NSFAS’ jurisdiction, which NSFAS would request before it is provided to AGSA. The turn-around time for such information is beyond the control of NSFAS, however, AGSA was duly informed of such delays,” Carolissen said.

The committee has since requested the AG to expedite the audit and have it finalised before the end of the month.

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