Pressure Mounts on Manamela

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

Pressure is mounting on Minister Buti Manamela after the Public Protector’s briefing providing an update on the investigation into the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The investigation has already found that more than 40,000 students were improperly funded, involving R5.1 billion, with the Public Protector indicating that the SIU found widespread fraud and improper payments in the student funding system.

The ongoing controversies, investigations, failed administrations, and the lack of answers to Parliament point to a breakdown at NSFAS under the watch of Minister Buti Manamela.

Serious allegations of maladministration exist on top of last week’s embarrassing court loss, where the Minister was rebuked by the High Court for the way he appointed the NSFAS Administrator.

The High Court suspended Minister Buti Manamela’s appointment of Prof Hlengani Mathebula as NSFAS Administrator. The court even declared the Minister’s decision to appoint Prof Mathebula as the Administrator irrational – a scathing indictment of the Minister’s judgement on NSFAS matters.

The DA sees the Public Protector’s update today on its ongoing systemic investigation into alleged maladministration at NSFAS as very significant.

Once the investigation is complete and the report is final, action must be taken.

The DA will carefully consider the findings of this investigation at that point.

The Public Protector has put Minister Buti Manamela under a deadline to implement remedial action, which adds yet more pressure on the Minister.

For too long, the irrational National structure of NSFAS, and its ongoing internal failures, wasteful spending, system breakdowns, and failures to pay students, have rendered it incapable of fulfilling its mandate.

The very students it is meant to support are being left behind to bear the consequences.

The DA-proposed decentralised system of payments, which would enable the education and training institutions to administer student funding themselves more effectively and efficiently, would eliminate the disaster that is NSFAS.

The DA has insisted over time, and we make it clear again: The National structure of NSFAS must be scrapped. It must be replaced with a decentralised model.

The large and expensive national management of NSFAS has been a failed experiment. It’s time to face facts, Minister Buti Manamela.