Students rally against NSFAS funding delays, highlighting financial hardships

A group of students from universities and TVET colleges took to the streets on Wednesday to express their frustrations over delayed funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), despite previous promises from the Department of Higher Education and Training and NSFAS to address the issues. 

Accompanied by activists and concerned citizens, students marched to the department's offices in Pretoria, expressing ongoing frustration over delayed funding.

The march follows a similar protest last month by students at Tshwane University of Technology, who demanded that the department and NSFAS take immediate action to address delayed funding.

Kemogelo Masike, national president of the South African Students Federation, said students staged the march due to their anger and frustration with the NSFAS and the department.

He said students at universities and TVET colleges across the country are currently writing exams without receiving financial support from the government through NSFAS.

“We have written countless emails, memorandums of concerns to the Department of Higher Education and Training. We have also met personally with the executives at NSFAS. We have relayed our concerns but till today those issues are not resolved. Burning concerns pertain to defunding our students. Our students are defunded and many have been wrongfully discharged of their allowances. Many are evicted from their residences,” he said.

He added that students are particularly infuriated by the prospect of incurring historic debt starting from the 2026 academic year.

“We propose that the Minister (Dr Nobuhle Nkabane) must at least allocate 50% of her budget to the tuition funds of these students so that, come the 2026 academic year, they are not affected,” he said.

Vincent Makamu, former SRC president of the University of Limpopo, questioned the NSFAS's decision not to pay service providers, saying that the entity itself introduced the system. 

He emphasised that universities have been around for a long time, implying that this issue should have been resolved earlier.

“We have been demonstrating about these things for years now and they are just not ready to go and deliver what they want to deliver. Or maybe they are just not willing to deliver. We can’t come today and do the fight that we did three years back. It means they are not competent themselves,” he said.

Thivhudziwi Vele, chief director for programmes and qualifications for TVET, received the memorandum of demands and promised to respond, stating that a public acknowledgement would be issued confirming receipt of the document.

Last month, both the department and NSFAS cited application discrepancies, late registration confirmations, and budget constraints as reasons for funding delays.

In a joint statement, they explained that some university students who applied during the TVET application cycle faced registration issues due to application errors.

“Certain students, whose registration statuses were only confirmed after the official registration deadline, are currently facing delays in accessing funding support,” they said.

They also said students whose appeals have been approved are experiencing funding shortfalls due to limited remaining budgets, impacting their ability to cover registration and related costs.

Both the department and NSFAS said they are actively collaborating to address students’ financial challenges.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za