Time to Reconsider the NSFAS Model

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

The Democratic Alliance (DA) fully agrees with Minister Manamela, who admitted for the first time in Parliament yesterday that it is time to reconsider the NSFAS model. This is a shock admission from Manamela, and shows that the replacing of NSFAS is becoming inevitable.

Yesterday’s Parliamentary engagement on the administration of NSFAS highlighted a question far bigger than the current dispute between the Minister and the former Board, but why students continue to face funding uncertainty, accommodation disputes, appeals backlogs and debt exclusion despite repeated interventions aimed at stabilising NSFAS.

NSFAS has now been placed under administration for the third time in less than a decade. There is no more proof needed that NSFAS has failed.

South Africans have witnessed repeated governance crises, board instability, executive turnover, audit findings, funding delays and ongoing uncertainty for students and institutions. It is the students who continue to suffer the brunt of failing NSFAS, for whom the DA is fighting the hardest.

Yesterday, Minister Manamela was unable to explain what makes this administration fundamentally different from previous administrations, nor how he intends to prevent South Africa from facing a fourth intervention in the future. The appointment of an Administrator may provide temporary stability but administration cannot become the default response every time NSFAS enters crisis.

South Africa now needs a serious national conversation about the future of student funding, including the role of institutions, accountability mechanisms, administrative efficiency and the DA’s model: a more decentralised payment system that serves students by paying the Education Institution directly.

The real question is no longer whether NSFAS can survive another administration, but why a failing NSFAS is not yet replaced by a workable alternative.