‘We are not hiding anything,’ says Nzimande on allegations against Nsfas CEO Andile Nongogo

Higher education minister Blade Nzimande says the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) is investigating CEO Andile Nongogo for allegedly signing off on dodgy payments. 

Nogongo was placed on special leave amid uproar over the scheme’s direct payment contract.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Nzimande said he was awaiting a final report on Nsfas’ investigation.

“I am currently waiting on the final report of the Nsfas investigation in the process of the appointment of the direct payment partners. We are not hiding anything,” said the minister. 

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Nsfas appointed two lawyers to investigate the allegations against Nongogo and review the entity’s procurement systems and processes.

“As a result of these allegations, and the alleged involvement of the CEO, I have noted the decision by the board to place him on leave of absence while investigations are ongoing. 

“We did not say he is guilty or anything. The board just said he must step aside while it investigates,” said Nzimande. 

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) laid a criminal complaint against the former CEO of the Services Sector Education and Training Authority (SSETA) after its investigation into the authority revealed R37 million was allegedly wasted due to highly overinflated prices.

Outa said the invoices were signed off by Nongogo at the time. 

Student disqualification 

Nzimande said about 45,927 students were disqualified from getting bursaries due to processing gaps, which fall under three broad categories namely; hybrid applications, missing parental relationships, and latency data from higher education information management system (HEMIS). 

“Hybrid applications are continuing students who applied. About 14,703 records were continuing students who applied erroneously because of migrating from the old to the new system. In some instances, it was students panicked because they did not see their funding status and applied for funding. I can confirm that all these students are now funded,” he said. 

“The balance of 31,224 students remains not funded and this is due to the assessment of financial eligibility as Nsfas continues to pick up additional parental relationships and academic ineligibility.

“In relation to missing parental relationships, these are first-time entering students who were previously funded and later rejected because of additional parental relationships that were verified based on additional information sourced from government agencies, such as the home affairs department and the South Africa Revenue Services (Sars).”

READ: Nsfas defunds students after R5 billion loss as many complain about new payment system

Nzimande said it remained the ANC government’s commitment to transform the post-school education system and ensure that no student is excluded from accessing government funding. 

“It t is not an option for our post-school education and training system to remain the preserve of only those who can afford to pay. This is among the reasons that we are now finalising the work on our comprehensive student funding model, which will be announced after approval by cabinet.”