NSFAS has contingency plans to curb effects of strike

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) said the national strike by some of its workers will not affect next year’s funding applications.

Some workers from NSFAS have embarked on a strike over issues relating to the payment of performance bonuses, the permanent employment of contract workers, pension funds and the alleged victimisation of workers who blow the whistle against corruption.

The strike is being led by National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).

NSFAS says it has put contingency plans in place to manage the impact of the strike.

NSFAS administrator Randall Carolissen says, “There will be absolutely zero impact. We have done all our preparations so the strike won’t affect it, also the strike is half of the people are not going to strike because PSA is not on strike. We believe from the assessments we have done this morning that even those Nehawu people that are striking, there is very few of them that are striking. But we are still doing assessments.”

Nehawu’s Eric Kweleta believes it will particularly affect the NSFAS national office in Cape Town.

Kweleta said, “This time is very important because we are dealing with applications and processing particularly for next year. So that will be unfortunately affected. It is the IT department and the contact centre and not everyone has access to your smart phones because mostly walk-ins and formal submissions takes place through the office.”