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- Solidarity wrote to NSFAS after the plan allegedly failed to pay student study fees.
- NSFAS said its law office was taking up the matter and would not comment further.
- The financial aid scheme added that it had not stopped making payments to students and institutions.
Trade Union Solidarity has written to the National Plan for Student Financial Aid (NSFAS) warning it to stop its alleged non-payment of tertiary institutions.
This came after Solidarity claimed that several students were recently informed by their respective tertiary institutions that NSFAS “did not pay their tuition fees.”
“Students depend on scholarship funds to study and complete their studies. Being informed out of the blue that tuition fees have not been paid is a huge shock, especially for a student who, as is, cannot afford. the luxury of carrying this kind of cost on your own, “Solidarity’s manager of youth and professional development Paul Maritz said in a statement Wednesday.
Maritz added that this alleged failure of NSFAS “not only impacts a student’s studies, but also robs them of their future.”
As a result, Solidaridad sent the letter insisting that NSFAS assumes all its obligations immediately and agrees to fulfill its contractual and statutory obligations as set forth in the scholarship agreement.
“All of these students have successfully applied for scholarships, but NSFAS simply stopped paying without giving any reason. Solidarity cannot allow NSFAS to not simply accept such failure.
“When an agreement is entered into, both parties must abide by it. Therefore, Solidarity will not hesitate to take further legal action if NSFAS does not comply with these demands,” added Solidarity’s head of labor law services, Anton van der Bijl.
There will be no further comment on the subject – NSFAS
NSFAS Administrator Dr. Randall Carolissen responded to News24, saying that a law office was dealing with the matter and that there would be no further comment on the matter.
The economic aid scheme added that it has not stopped making payments to students and institutions.
“NSFAS processes the assignments and tuition fees for students based on registration data received from institutions,” added Carolissen.
Meanwhile, the financial aid scheme was also a matter of concern for the Higher Education, Science and Technology Portfolio Committee due to delays in the completion 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 the completion of the NSFAS audit and one of the reasons given by AGSA was the “unnecessarily long response time by NSFAS to provide the required information to the auditors.”
“What is of serious concern is the fact that all these inefficiencies and failures in meeting the requirements of the AG[SA] upon completion of the audit happen[ed] during the period in which the entity has been placed under administration.
“It does not generate public confidence that the situation appears to deteriorate under the supervision of the manager who was hired to save the bank’s fortune and turn it around,” committee chair Philly Mapulane said in a statement earlier this week.
NSFAS, however, said that all information requested by AGSA was provided within the agreed time frames and that any additional requests from AGSA were being addressed within the agreed time frame.
“Any pending information is information that was outside the jurisdiction of NSFAS, which NSFAS would request before being provided to AGSA. The response time for such information is beyond the control of NSFAS, however, AGSA was duly informed of such delays. , “Carolissen said.
Since then, the committee has asked the Attorney General to expedite the audit and complete it before the end of the month.
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