Universities South Africa, an umbrella body representing public universities, has welcomed the move to scrap the National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS) controversial direct payment system eZaga.
This after glitches left beneficiaries without funds, leading to countrywide protests at universities by students.
Meanwhile, NSFAS CEO Andile Nongogo has until tomorrow to plead his case with the Board on why he should not be dismissed over the matter.
The report by Werkmans Attorneys into allegations about the appointment by NSFAS of direct payment service providers confirmed that there were irregularities in the process.
The video below reports on the NSFAS direct payment system:
The scheme’s Board revealed this week that he had breached multiple procurement processes in the appointment of service providers for the direct payment system.
He is accused of irregularly awarding the eZaga contract- along with those of other service providers.
CEO of Universities South Africa, Dr Phethiwe Matutu says, “Universities South Africa welcomes the report, and the response by the Board of NSFAS to terminate the contracts of the four service providers and also to request that the CEO should explain why he should not be dismissed, further investigate the NSFAS staff which is associated with wrongdoing in this – and review the NSFAS supply chain management. None of the effects of this can be measured in rands and cents because some of the students are sitting at home. It was a very costly experiment.”
The audio file below is reporting more on the story:
