Manamela Collapses Parliament’s NSFAS Administration Oversight

Statement by Dr Delmaine Christians MP – DA Spokesperson on Higher Education and Training:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) raises serious concerns about the collapse of today’s planned Portfolio Committee meeting, scheduled to be held at NSFAS headquarters. The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Minister Buti Manamela, was scheduled to brief Parliament on the decision to place NSFAS under administration in terms of Sections 17A to 17D of the NSFAS Act.

The meeting can no longer proceed after neither the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) nor NSFAS submitted presentations ahead of the engagement, despite the seriousness and urgency of the matter before Parliament.

In formal correspondence yesterday, Minister Manamela requested additional time to finalise and “quality assure” his presentation. Minister Manamela has had weeks to prepare for today. The DA questions what Manamela is trying to hide from Parliament and the public of South Africa.

In a separate letter, NSFAS Administrator Professor Hlengani Mathebula raised governance and financial concerns regarding the participation of former board members in the meeting, arguing that they no longer hold office and that NSFAS may not legally cover travel and related costs on their behalf.

These developments now point to a rapidly escalating governance and legal crisis within NSFAS, with Parliament itself increasingly being drawn into institutional instability, leadership disputes, procedural conflict and uncertainty around accountability processes.

Placing NSFAS under administration was presented as a measure to stabilise the institution. Yet within days, the matter has escalated into court action, governance disputes, delayed accountability to Parliament, and now the collapse of a critical parliamentary oversight engagement.

The DA believes Parliament cannot be sidelined or delayed in exercising oversight over decisions of this magnitude, particularly when they involve a multibillion-rand public entity central to the future of thousands of students.

The DA reiterates our call for the scrapping of NSFAS in its current form.

NSFAS must be replaced with a new decentralised student funding model, where accredited and competent higher education institutions administer their own funding, removing failing intermediaries and reducing governance, procurement and payment failures.

South Africans deserve full transparency on the circumstances that led to the administration decision, the legal and governance implications now unfolding, and whether the intervention intended to restore stability is instead deepening the crisis at NSFAS.