Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande has dissolved the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) board and put it under administration. Nzimande announced the dissolution of the board yesterday, just hours after the chairperson of the board Ernest Khosa resigned from his position. 

 "As part of the set of interventions meant to improve the organisational efficiency of NSFAS and to ensure it remains focused on its mandate, earlier today the minister met the NSFAS board,' the statement said. Nzimande also announced that he will have a media briefing on Sunday to explain the reasons behind dissolving the board. 

RECURRING PROBLEMS 

Earlier yesterday, Nzimande said in a statement that he has noted the ongoing problem of non-payment of student allowances by NSFAS. The minister said that he is aware and that he is deeply disturbed by the recurring problems at the financial aid scheme, adding that the this problem harms the well-being of students and the continued functioning of the post-school education and training system. "As part of this series of decisive steps, I have instructed NSFAS, supported by the Department to immediately establish a dedicated Task Team that will visit all the TVET colleges and universities, where students are experiencing serious NSFAS-related problems."

BOARD CHAIRPERSON RESIGNATION

Khosa resigned yesterday just hours before Nzimande announced the dissolution of the board, citing security concerns. In January, Khosa said that his family and his life was being threatened. In the same month, he took leave of absence for 30 days to allow the board to investigate allegations of corruption against him. The allegations were made by Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) which alleged that Khosa defrauded NSFAS through kickbacks from service providers. He denied the allegations. In his resignation letter, Khosa said he would have preferred to resigned at the beginning of the year but delayed as he was waiting for the outcome of the investigation against him. "I was conscious that leaving the organisation at that time would have been interpreted as both bowing to pressure and acceptance of guilt,' he said in the letter.  Nzimande said he has accepted his resignation.