5 000 students lose NSFAS funding for “lying”

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is going after 5000 students who it accuses of lying in order to get funding.

NSFAS said they had decided to defund the 5000 students who were funded during this academic year.

The fund’s administrator, Dr Randall Carolissen, said recent financial information obtained from the South African Revenue Services (Sars), has revealed that these students declared total household family income that was above the R350 000 threshold.

Carolissen said students had been sent communication with regard to their defunding.

“The affected students will have 14 days, from the date of issue, to petition this decision by submitting proof of family income or change of income to NSFAS for review. The documents need to be submitted to IncomeReview@nsfas.org.za NSFAS reserves the right to make the correct funding decisions based on its financial eligibility verification processes,” he said.

But, despite the announcement, NSFAS could not give clarity on how the students had managed to be funded, and not detected during the application process. They also didn’t respond to questions on whether they would try and recoup the money or even charge students with fraud.

Meanwhile the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) issued a warning to Sibongile Mani on Monday after she failed to appear in court. The NPA said if she didn’t appear in court on August 25, an arrest warrant would be enforced.

Mani was arrested in May 2018 after a case of theft was opened by Intelimali, a company responsible for distributing NSFAS funds. R14million was deposited into her account instead of R1400, and she spent about R830000 within 73 days.

The Star