DA calls on Scopa to investigate Minister Nzimande’ s alleged interference on the 2.5 billion NSFAS laptop tender

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) to do a probe into the allegations of misconduct in NSFAS laptop tender and for National Treasury to launch a forensic investigation into the procurement of the laptops that cost R2.5 billion.

On Friday, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) presented alarming allegations to Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education, science and technology and the select committee on education and technology, sports, arts and culture. (see here)

Among Nehawu’s allegations are the following:

  1. The NSFAS Board was dissolved after the entity was placed under administration for the purpose of creating a critical vacancies list in order to legitimize nepotism form the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Blade Nzimande, the NSFAS administrator, Dr Randall Carolissen, and advisors.
  2. The Administrator has allegedly misled both Parliament and the public about NSFAS’ performance by changing the strategic indicators and replacing them with his Terms of Reference, and victimized, target, suspended and dismissed officials in order to cover the tracks.

The poor ICT system has been ripping at the seams for years. The current system is simply unable to cope with the influx of new students every year and the chasms in communication between universities, TVET colleges and NSFAS cause more students to fall through the cracks every year.

The flawed verification processes resulting in non-payment to thousands of students for months, or even years is another huge headache at NSFAS. This critical oversight has led to students being left homeless and going hungry while waiting for their funds to come through. Many students have also failed to complete their studies due to NSFAS’ failure.

Seven months after the initial Covid-19 lockdown was announced and six months after the first extension of the national state of disaster, hundreds of students have still not received the promised assistance from the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology in the form of mobile devices to enable them to continue their studies from home. Instead of doing all he can to keep his promises, the Minister’s involvement in trying to flout the procurement process has resulted in the cancellation of the tender by the NSFAS administrator.

All the allegations are reflective of a collapsed entity. The DA calls on the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) to review the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) business processes to expedite the appointment of senior executives (CEO, CFO and Board) in light of more allegations of wrongdoing at the institution.

The DA did not receive a satisfactory response to our parliamentary questions regarding this on 28 May 2020 and have yet to receive a response to our questions submitted on 25 August 2020.

We will write to the Director-General of DHET to release the report on the tender to Scopa.

NSFAS desperately needs stability to ensure the future of all students who depend on the entity to ensure their futures. For many of South Africa’s poorest young people NSFAS is the only way to fund their higher education and it is an utter disgrace that the ongoing corruption and mismanagement at the entity might derail this.