Pandor appoints Sars executive as Nsfas administrator

Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor has on Friday appointed Dr Randall Carollissen to head the embattled National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas).

The move comes a week after calls for the student funding agency’s chairman Sizwe Nxasana to step down led to his resignation.

Nxasana admitted the Nsfas payments system had come under extreme strain after former president Jacob Zuma announced last December that students from poor families would receive free higher education.

Last week, Pandor met with the Nsfas board following Nxasana’s resignation, and they all agreed to the appointment of an administrator.

On Friday, Pandor’s department confirmed the appointment of Carollissen, and said he would take over the governance, management and administration of the student funding scheme for a period of one year.

“Dr Carolissen is currently [the group executive for revenue planning, analysis and reporting] at Sars. He is also the chair of the council of the University of the Witwatersrand,” the department said.

Nsfas has halted 2019 applications that were expected to commence on August 1 due to payment backlogs from 2017 and 2018.

“The immediate focus for the administrator will be to ensure the effective closeout of the 2017 and 2018 student funding decisions and disbursements, as well as to urgently finalise plans for the 2019 funding cycle,” the department said.

It revealed that Carollissen would be supported by a team of experts in areas such as financial aid, human resources, information technology, business systems and change management.

“I wish to thank him for agreeing to take on this critical and important task. I also thank the Sars, and the minister of finance [Nhlanhla Nene] for agreeing to release Dr Carollissen,” Pandor said.

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