NSFAS Shortfall Could Grow to a Staggering R33 Billion by 2029

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

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling on Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela to urgently disclose a concrete and funded plan to address the growing financial crisis at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

It is no longer sufficient for the Minister to acknowledge that NSFAS has a funding problem. Students and institutions need to know how he intends to fix it.

Parliament was told last month that the major unresolved financial pressure at NSFAS was approximately R10.49 billion in 2026 tuition owed to universities, with only 61.5% of university allocations having been paid at that stage.

Minister Manamela has now acknowledged that NSFAS faces an estimated shortfall of approximately R15 billion, which could grow to a staggering R33 billion by 2029.

This is not an abstract accounting problem. When NSFAS fails to pay institutions on time, universities carry the financial burden while students face uncertainty over their funding, registration and ability to continue their studies.

The obvious question that Manamela has failed to answer: what is the plan?

Despite repeated talk shops, the Minister has failed to provide an interim crisis plan to pay money owed, and a long‑term sustainable funding model solution to the absolute disaster that is NSFAS. This cannot become another crisis simply rolled into the next academic year.

NSFAS has moved from governance failures to outstanding payments to registration difficulties and now to a projected multibillion‑rand funding hole. After a year of turmoil under Buti Manamela, the question is increasingly whether he is capable of providing the decisive leadership required to fix the institution under his watch.

The DA has already called for an urgent review of the NSFAS Act and the decentralisation of student funding administration.

Universities cannot be expected to act as NSFAS’s bank, and students cannot continually be left carrying the consequences of government indecision.

Minister Manamela must now put dates, figures and a funded rescue plan on the table. South Africa’s students and institutions deserve more than another promise that a solution is being developed.