Unqualifying Students Funded

South Africa

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has revealed that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) paid over R5 billion to unqualified students, with 40,000 students being incorrectly funded.

The SIU informed Parliament’s finance watchdog that students whose household income is above R350,000 do not qualify for funding, but some students did not submit their parents’ details when applying and used their grandparents’ information instead.

The SIU has been investigating 76 institutions and has only managed to recover R38 million from them. Ernest Khosa, the chairperson of NSFAS, said that the SIU report accurately identifies many problems threatening the sector’s security and highlights the involvement of “mafias” in the sector.