The chairperson of the portfolio committee on higher education and training Tebogo Letsie has requested National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) administrator Freeman Nomvalo to submit monthly reports to the committee, which includes progress on the 2025 application process.
Letsie also asked for updates on the work related to his terms of reference as administrator.
Letsie, an ANC MP said though Nomvalo is required to submit reports to the Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Nobuhle Nkabane, as the committee they can also ask for reports to track progress.
“Though we are an oversight body, for those who watch soccer there is something called VAR (video assistant referee) … We are going to do oversight with VAR application. We are not going to wait for things to get bad before we intervene,” he said.
Nomvalo said the scheme made payments of R1.6-billion private accommodation providers.
“Of this, R311-million is paid to NSFAS accredited TVET college accommodations providers and R1.297-billion to NSFAS accredited university accommodation providers,” he said.
He said the delays in payment were caused by non-compliance with NSFAS criteria in the placement of students in privately owned accommodation.
Some of the delays, he said, were because of lease agreements not being signed on time by both parties.
Late submission of registration data by institutions, late funding decisions by NSFAS and incorrect invoicing were also cited as causing delays in payments of private accommodation service providers.
To deal with the challenges Nomvalo said NSFAS was finalising the verification process of students who are housed at accommodation providers which did not follow the processes.
On student appeals, NSFAS said it had received 94 469 appeals with 63% already resolved.
Applications for 2025 will open on September 1.
Nomvalo said all funding decisions for the new academic year will be finalised by the end of December.
