Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has
made a declaration that his department will be joining hands the South African
Social Security Agengy (Sassa) in an investigation that aims to ascertain the
manner in which NSFAS recipients are approved.
According to Nsimande, there is a suspicion that Sassa may
be the entry point of corruption within the NSFAS funding system.
Nzimande made the declaration during a briefing that
provided update on NSFAS funding for the 2022 academic year.
He alluded to bringing Sassa into the probe with the aim of
assisting in the verification of the data submitted to NSFAS in order to find
and deal with students who are illegal recipients of funding.
“Because they know that they don’t qualify, but they
have found a way of providing false information in such that students that come
from better off families benefit from NSFAS whilst poor students from the
working class continue to be excluded,” Nzimande said.
