NSFAS in 'firefighting mode' over student accommodation crisis

TimesLIVE

07-05-2025

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) acting CEO Waseem Carrim acknowledged ongoing problems with student accommodation, citing inadequate planning and risk assessment before implementing the student accommodation pilot project.
Nsfas launched the pilot project during the 2022/23 academic year to ensure that qualifying students were provided with conducive private accommodation.
Carrim said that NSFAS had undertaken the project without doing necessary feasibility studies, capacity building, policy guidelines, or a legal framework, resulting in significant issues within the system.
This came as NSFAS briefed MPs on updates related to resolving students' appeals, funding decisions for the 2025 academic year, disbursement of funding and allowances, the close-out report, student accommodation and related matters.
Highlighting the structural problems within the student accommodation sector, Carrim pointed out the shortage of safe and secure student housing in South Africa.
'If you go to the University of Fort Hare today, Alice campus, there are insufficient beds, which means we end up paying the students an allowance. And say, go and find your own which is not a good way to run the system, but we must recognise that even where student accommodation exists, we do not have an effective and efficient distribution system of allocating, placing and paying for that student accommodation.'
Carrim noted that in 2024, about 2,500 accommodation providers, representing about 81,000 students, were paid about R2.9bn for private accommodation.
However, in 2025, though payments had been made to 3,828 providers representing more than 100,000 students, the disbursements amounted to about R1.3bn, significantly lower than the previous year.
To address the immediate issues, Carrim said, NSFAS had finalised the 2024 reconciliation of unpaid student accommodation and instituted a 2024 claims process, with payments expected by May 31.
Carrim said many small and medium businesses could not survive without NSFAS payments if there were no payments for two or three months.
'On the other side of that, we also have a fiduciary obligation to confirm that the students who are staying in those residences are confirmed students. We are picking up too many instances where students are living in accommodation as NSFAS students, but we don't have registration data,' he said.
Further, Carrim acknowledged challenges related to unaccredited accommodation allowances, which were capped at R2,500 to encourage landlords to upgrade facilities to meet accreditation standards.
He noted that this cap led to protests, such as at the University of the Free State, prompting NSFAS to grant a deviation for the 2025 academic year.
Addressing the Eastern Cape situation, Carrim said that a system challenge had caused some landlords to receive only one month of disbursement after being owed four for months. He assured that a top-up payment was scheduled for May 2 .
A member of the portfolio committee on higher education, Sedukanelo Tshepo Louw, recommended that by the end of May, institutions should have NSFAS officers on-site so that students could address their frustrations directly with them.
'Unaccredited private accommodation should not be paid for, however, providers should be encouraged to seek accreditation,' Louw said.