Universities South Africa (USAf) chief executive officer Phethiwe Matutu says the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) lacks the capacity to deal with student funding and should consider roping in other stakeholders for assistance.
The organisation believes that the scheme should share responsibilities with the universities instead of trying to spearhead all procedures with a limited staff complement.
NSFAS is responsible for facilitating the application processes along with disbursements of both tuition and accommodation for students.
“The centralisation of NSFAS needs recapitalisation, which means better staffing and infrastructure. NSFAS is a small organisation which is expected to administer R50-billion. A lot is at stake, so it is important that money is paid at the appropriate time,” she reiterated.
Matutu believes that universities can mobilise an administrative team, which also consists of students, to tackle the red tape.
At least seven weeks since the beginning of the year, NSFAS has still not settled thousands of outstanding 2024 student accommodation debt.
USAf is advocating for institutions of higher learning to take up the responsibility of disbursements along with the task of accrediting accommodations that house students.
“The issue of providers not being paid upfront does not make sense. They must pay rates, staff, taxes and all sorts of bills,” she said.
Private Student Housing Association chief executive Kagisho Mamabolo said they are also unhappy with NSFAS regarding the arrears.
“They are sending an email address where we need to send claims but we cannot be doing this repeatedly. It does not give us confidence that NSFAS is serious about resolving this matter. They must take responsibility and inform us why they cannot resolve the matter,” Mamabolo explains.
NSFAS spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said they had initiated a reconciliation of accommodation claims and disbursements as there had been duplications in some instances.
“In 2025, NSFAS is implementing measures to ensure certainty and clarity about claims and disbursements.”
Advocacy group Youth Capital’s Nape Senong said preliminary findings of a report from a campaign they run called FixNSFAS showed accommodation remained a serious issue.
“Young people end up being homeless or resort to very weird ways of surviving. It plunges the poor into even more poverty.
“For us, NSFAS is important because it gives a lot of poor children an opportunity to get tertiary education, which gives them the ability to find work.”
