Understudy political bodies have communicated worry over the vulnerability and the disappointment that the disputable direct installment framework, eZaga, has caused right after the new examination that has been opened against the Chief of the Public Understudy Monetary Guide Plan (Nsfas), Andile Nongogo, for charges of unsuitable lead in the granting of delicate offers.
The Inkatha Opportunity Party Youth Unit (IFPYB) is the most recent to weep over the critical circumstance unfurling the nation over inside foundations of higher learning.
“It is with overwhelming sadness that we witness the ANC-drove branch of advanced education, science and development exhibiting an outright negligence for the government assistance and instruction of our understudies. The eZaga drive, which was purportedly intended to ease monetary weights and guarantee impartial admittance to schooling, has rather made a disturbing emergency,” said the IFPYB in an explanation.
While the Unique Researching Unit and Public Defender test is in progress and Nongogo is put on extraordinary leave, a portion of the monetarily troubled understudies who are Nsafs’ recipients that have been impeded by the Ezaga framework, have no means to support themselves.
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Provincial chairperson of EFFSC (Students’ Command) Gauteng Matimba Ngobeni told City Press that the EFFSC in Gauteng welcomed the investigation that was under way about the matter and the suspension of the CEO.
“We are confident that the outcome of the investigation will favour the students because these companies are charging extremely high fees and they were appointed through a corruption process. All these companies are not registered with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act,” Ngobeni said.
Ngobeni further said that the EFFSC-led SRC was distributing groceries to students who were affected by the situation across campuses. Vaal University SRC has called students to collect groceries from the SRC.
In the mean time, the Association Fixing Assessment Misuse has been sounding the alert about abnormalities starting around 2022. Its new examination uncovered that the four organizations that won the tenders to carry out the new immediate installment framework, eZaga, were unprepared for the undertaking and not enlisted as monetary specialist co-ops.
Sasco and Saus call for equity
The SA Understudies Congress (Sasco) president, Vezinhlanhla Simelane, told City Press that the understudy development’s mediation involved requesting that Nsfas send individuals who were liable for direct installment to visit the grounds and help those understudies who couldn’t on-board the framework.
“We have likewise collected the topic of the cash that is vanishing since understudies would have cash and unexpectedly, it vanishes. There was nobody who could represent what befell the cash that vanished. In this way, we have asked Nsfas that they should investigate that matter so an answer is found.”
Simelane called for equity to follow all the way through and different authorities chummy with Nongogo to confront the outcomes of their activities.
Meanwhile, the SA Union of Students (Saus) spokesperson, Asive Dlanjwa, said that the union noted with disappointment and outrage what seemed to be a disaster in terms of the implementation of the direct payment system.
Dlanjwa mentioned:
It must be noted that we still do believe a system was the right solution to the extent to which it would have been able to provide efficient and timely payment of allowances and prevent the corruption as we had seen and make sure that we centralise, or rather standardise the payment across the sector. This is informed by the fact that we have seen institutions that have not paid students until late. On principle, direct payment would have been the most efficient system, but it is clear that the implementation by Nsfas was inefficient.
He further said that they noted the suspension of Nongogo, even though it may not have a direct linkage to the payment system.
Dlanjwa adds that Saus has met with Nsfas and presented a plan that they believe could solve the situation.
“Lastly, we want to condemn the sabotage of the direct payment system by university officials and vice-chancellors who have a direct business interest in the payment of allowances. Some of them have even withheld the registration data that would have helped ensure that all Nsfas beneficiaries are paid,” added Dlanjwa.
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