Embittered members of the South African Students Federation (SASF) have called on NSFAS authorities to stop defunding tertiary students and pay them funds that are due to them.
SASF opines that students who have been defunded by NSFAS automatically find themselves swimming in the proverbial pool of poverty and are compelled to embark on nefarious activities in order to make ends meet.
According to SASF’s National President Keamogetswe Masike, most students who have been deprived of their allowances by NSFAS come from poor households whereby their parents are unemployed.
Now in order to ventilate the dire circumstances wherein defunded students find themselves in, SASF members marched peacefully to the offices of Higher Education Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane, to hand her a memorandum of their demands.
Minister Nkabane didn’t show up initially to receive the memorandum but SASF’s members demanded that she must personally come to fetch the memorandum or else there would be chaos.
Chief of staff in the office of the minister Nelisiwe Semane and chief director of programs and qualification Thivhudziwi Vele received the memorandum and signed it but before students handed over the memorandum they demanded that officials to call the minister first.
“We are here because we are angry about the conduct of NSFAS regarding the fact that several students at TVET colleges and universities are currently not receiving any financial support from the government, this despite the fact that we have written numerous letters to the government asking them to fund the said students,” he said.
“We have also written to the Minister of Higher Education and also met on a face-to-face basis with the executive committee of NSFAS administration but our issues have not been attended to as yet,” said Masike.
He pointed out that many students have been wrongfully defunded by the NSFAS, resulting in them being unable to pay for their stay at residences and subsequently being evicted from the said residences.
“What makes us angrier is the issue of historic debts, which will be incurred by defunded students come the 2026 academic year, and we therefore propose that the Minister of Higher Education must allocate at least 50% of her budget towards funding the debt owed by students to various tertiary institutions,” he said.
He pointed out that in some instances students’ funding has been erroneously directed to TVET colleges by NSFAS yet such students are registered at universities.
He said it is not the first time that they have marched to the offices of the Minister of Education to raise the selfsame demands because they marched to her offices on 20 May this year.
Masike pointed out that numerous students would have liked to attend Wednesday’s protest march but couldn’t do so due to financial constraints that have been caused by NSFAS’ decision to defund them.
He welcomed interventions by Parliament to resolve issues that are plaguing students but pointed out that in many instances Parliamentarians are just grandstanding and are not prepared to rescue students from their plight.
“The plight of students is a national crisis and these initial protest marches are the first leg; a build-up to further action that may be taken by the students going forward, and remember that there is no formula in a revolution because though we might be peaceful today, we don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” warned Masike.
“The current NSFAS administration is the one that introduced the phenomenon of paying service providers directly and now that they are not prepared to pay service providers it means they are incompetent and should not be sitting in those NSFAS offices,” fumed former Vice President of the Limpopo University SRC 2022/2023 Vincent Viper Makama.
“We have been having universities for a long time in South Africa and the plight of the students is not something new because we have been demonstrating about students issues for years now, and it is apparent that the NSFAS administration is just not ready to deliver on what they are supposed to deliver, or maybe just not willing to deliver on their mandate, this as we can’t keep on fighting for things that we fought for three years ago,” said Makama.
The students’ demands include issues like N Plus, defunded students, affected students and the post graduate students matter that entails refusal to release certificates of graduates.
“If somebody has completed their studies and fails to pay their debt for a period of three years and can’t be given their certificates, then it means such a student can’t afford to pay and the Minister must therefore do something to resolve the issues of such students,” he said.
He also alluded to the issue of the “missing middle,” which relates to students whose parents’ income exceeds R350 000 per year and are therefore excluded from funding by NSFAS, yet the reality of the situation is that such parents can’t afford to pay fees for their children.
“Our overall demand is free quality education which will erase all the problems facing students at the moment,” he said.
Chief of staff in the office of the minister Nelisiwe Semane and chief director of programs and qualification Thivhudziwi vele received the memorandum and signed it on behalf of the minister and they promised students that they will make sure that minister receive it.
Students movements also joined march ActionSA,MK students Commanders and EFF students commanders.
Copy of Memorandum: