Latest news with #WaseemCarrim
IOL News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Challenges facing NSFAS: higher education and training committee members voice concerns
The portfolio committee on higher education and training was briefed by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) covering several key areas. These included the progress in resolving student appeals, funding decisions for the 2025 academic year, the disbursement of funds and allowances, the close-out report, student accommodation, and other relevant issues. Image: Screenshot Despite being interrogated about the state of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and its shortcomings, acting chief executive officer Waseem Carrim says the institution will be stable, more functional, effective and efficient in a few months. On Wednesday, NSFAS updated the portfolio committee on higher education and training on matters plaguing the institution. While committee members posed questions, they also expressed significant concerns regarding NSFAS. Committee member Sihle Ngubane said: 'It's (NSFAS) in tatters; it's disappointing, and these issues have been deliberately allowed to persist, from accommodation to tuition, transport, and the ICT system; the whole value chain is a mess.' Another committee member, Mnqobi Msezane, said NSFAS has a high level of incompetence. 'I'm not going to delve into what you inherited and whatnot because there are many members there, including senior members such as the COO, who has been there at NSFAS and when all these things have been happening and they continue to happen. There are staff members who are responsible to be dealing with matters that are still there, that you found there,' Msezane said. 'There is serious incompetence in your space, and we want to see consequence management.' Committee member Sedukanelo Louw said they have been sitting with the Department of Higher Education and Training and NSFAS and dealing with similar issues daily and yearly. 'Your institutional system and NSFAS must be aligned,' Louw said. 'By the end of June, you must have the SARS system implemented in NSFAS that is aligned with universities, aligned with NSFAS and private providers,' Louw continued. 'When you have aligned your systems and you fix your system in terms of documentation that you must submit to SARS and others, it will assist you to understand who you should fund and who you should not fund. That will be a solution for the students.' Providing recommendations, Louw said unaccredited private accommodation should not be paid for however, providers should be encouraged to seek accreditation. Centralise the close-out project. Implement an action plan for the Auditor-General of South Africa's recommendations. Develop clear, honest, transparent communication, including challenges, as this approach will foster trust, enhance collaboration and ensure that all stakeholders are well informed, even when addressing difficulties. Carrim said: 'There's no quick fix to what we are dealing with here; it is going to take a few months for us, and I apologise for that. We did not inherit a perfect system at NSFAS.' 'We're following a process in a very imperfect system.' Acting CFO Luhle Tshangela said R119 million was received for the ICT system upgrade, and they have about R30 million left. The money was used to update the systems, application systems and to add to the capacity of the ICT department. Carrim added that he empathised with what students are going through. 'At no point do we take any joy or pleasure from students not being paid. I understand that students are required to survive on meagre living allowances for the accommodation that NSFAS must provide, and that when the institution fails, this has ramifications throughout the system,' Carrim said. 'The issues are structural and systematic, it is going to take me and the team a bit of time to be able to work through them, and where there is underperformance or non-performance, there will be consequences for that, where there is wrongdoing, there will be consequences for that. We're not going to tolerate underperformance and non-performance. We've made performance management a non-negotiable. 'I do ask the committee to give me a bit of time to be able to resolve. In my view, in six months, I think we will be much stable and a much more functional, effective and efficient institution,' Carrim said. [email protected]
Daily Maverick
08-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Mps demand accountability as nsfas struggles with payments, backlogs, and ICT failures
Members of Parliament described NSFAS as a disappointing institution, citing continual issues of non-payment and unnecessary spending. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is battling to repair its information and communication technology (ICT) system. It was allocated R100-million for the repairs, and only R30-million is left, according to NSFAS. The scheme's four solution partners responsible for managing student accommodation have delayed payments, resulting in financial complications for some landlords, some of whom have been forced to evict students. Members of Parliament's committee on higher education have expressed concern and frustration. They described NSFAS as a disappointing institution after continual non-payment issues and unnecessary spending. On Wednesday, 7 May 2025, NSFAS briefed the committee on student appeals, funding, allowances and accommodation matters. Newly appointed acting chief executive officer Waseem Carrim led the presentation, accompanied by new NSFAS board chairperson Dr Karen Stander. More than R16-billion has been disbursed so far this year to universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges for tuition fees, accommodation payments and allowances, NSFAS said. The scheme received more than 70,000 student appeals and had finalised 34,645. NSFAS has 5,533 appeals over outstanding documents, and will close 4,023 of these after a 30-day deadline. In August 2024, NSFAS was battling to ease the backlog of student queries and appeals with a designated staff of between 80 and 86. This led to MPs raising concerns and calling for NSFAS to be decentralised. Accommodation payments, landlord issues, student evictions Members of the committee criticised NSFAS's use of four service providers who were meant to conduct the accreditation of properties whose owners had applied scheme's accommodation platform. The committee heard that the service providers received a 5% commission from landlords for every NSFAS transaction. Committee member Sihle Lonzi (EFF) raised issues over student accommodation, referring specifically to the Walter Sisulu University student who died in a protest against housing conditions. Lonzi asked why NSFAS used service providers to pay landlords, and said this should be scrapped. Carrim replied that 'the solution partners receive that fee for the utilisation of their online portal…We and the board find this contract to be problematic. While we may not have signed these laws, we are bound by them, which is why we would have instituted a legal review… the SIU (Special Investigating Unit) has also flagged this complex accommodation process for a review… we are stuck with this process.' Committee member Sihle Ngubane (uMkhonto Wesizwe party) said, 'The institution is in tatters. It's disappointing and these things are made deliberately to be like this, from accommodation to tuition to transport to [the] ICT system, the whole value chain is a mess.' Committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie (ANC) criticised NSFAS for its delays in payments to landlords, saying this had major implications for business owners. Letsie cited the example of a landlord from KwaZulu-Natal who had lost 80 beds due to NSFAS non-payment. 'NSFAS did not pay, and they tried to plead with banks, but the banks wanted their money. This lady then lost 80 beds that she had for about six years,' said Letsie. Karabo Khakhau (DA) and Gaolatlhe Kgabo (ANC) questioned what caused the move to send funds to students, who then paid accommodation providers, which she said was a mistake. Carrim replied, 'The payment made to students for accommodation was not an incorrect payment. Those are students who claimed accommodation, but were not linked to an accommodation provider, and therefore it was necessary. Those students would have slept on the streets if we did not pay that accommodation allowance.' He said NSFAS had told the students that the disbursements had been for accommodation. Carrim confirmed that more than 3,000 accommodation providers had been paid, representing 100,000 students, at a cost of R1-billion. Missing middle funds NSFAS has been capitalised with R3.5-billion over a three-year cycle from 2024-2027 to support students who fall into the 'missing middle' category of R350,000-R600,000 annual household income. This support was introduced by former higher education and training minister Blade Nzimande. In this category, NSFAS received 65,812 loan applications, of which 2,268 were eligible, while 43,261 applications met the bursary criteria and were automatically funded, leaving 20,283 ineligible. NSFAS offices NSFAS spends more than R2-million a month on rent for its upscale Cape Town offices. There have been calls from MPs to relocate because of the cost. Carrim said NSFAS was willing to leave the building, but there were contractual obligations. He said the SIU had also confirmed irregularities in the procurement process. 'The Special Tribunal will impose an equitable outcome; NSFAS cannot, at this stage, be certain of whether the cancellation penalties will form part of that,' said Carrim. He said NSFAS was developing plans for relocation should the court rule for the immediate termination of the lease, so that business operations were not affected. Lonzi suggested that government buildings be used for NSFAS offices. Carrim asked for six months to turn around the struggling scheme. DM
The Herald
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald
NSFAS in 'firefighting mode' over student accommodation crisis
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. TimesLIVE
TimesLIVE
07-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
NSFAS in 'firefighting mode' over student accommodation crisis
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.
