The DA has today launched an online portal allowing students who allege that they remain unfunded, despite qualifying for NSFAS, to speak-out about their concerns peacefully.

Almost all of these students are poor, and have been left behind by the ANC government’s complete lack of care and poor management of the system.

The DA will submit these names to the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mr Blade Nzimande, the NSFAS CEO, Mr Daca, and relevant Vice-Chancellors so that they can make the important interventions necessary to ensure that these qualifying students are supported financially.

This action by the DA follows the blatant and reckless misleading of South Africa by the Minister Nzimande at the Higher Education Imbizo last week, where he claimed that there are no unfunded, qualifying NSFAS students in South Africa.

This is simply not true. I have personally had hundreds of cases brought to my attention by the SRC of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, which I have already raised with the Minister and NSFAS.

This was also confirmed yesterday in Parliament, after I asked the Minister about this very problem. The Minister opted to pass the question to his Director-General, who said that he was “aware” of such students and they are now in talks with Treasury to find the R1.4 billion that is needed to fund these already qualifying NSFAS students.

Furthermore, the Deputy Director General for TVET Colleges, Firoz Patel, confirmed in a SMS to me that they do not have the money for these students and it still must be procured in the MTBPS. There is still no indication as to whether the touted R1.4 billion figure was to cover these students for this year alone, or for their studies next year as well.

This follows an agreement reached with Vice Chancellors with the Minister in January this year, which allowed for poor students who qualified for NSFAS to register. A commitment was made by the government that they would thereafter support them. I argued in the portfolio committee at the time that without this funding, these students would be set up to fail and would incur new debts to Universities, adding to the tension.

Given all this information, it beggars belief as to why the Minister would have then misled the public at the Imbizo, especially at a time of high tension on campus, and deliberate and shameful efforts by proponents of campus shut-down proponents to garner support from such students.

If anything it is reckless and dangerous. The Department should be doing everything possible to allow for the overwhelming majority of students, who want our campuses to re-open, to be provided with a peaceful platform for their very real concerns.

The DA is determined to get to the bottom of this. Therefore, in addition to the online portal which the DA has launched, and efforts by DASO structures on campuses to collect this information when they meet such affected individuals, I have also written to the Minister, and CEO of NSFAS to inquire:

• The number of unfunded students in 2016 who qualify for NSFAS
• A list of these students; and
• The anticipated underfunding in NSFAS for 2017 to cover all students who meet the funding criteria.

I have also written to Vice-Chancellors of Universities to gain information on:

• The number of unfunded students at their university who qualify for NSFAS
• A list of these students
• The amount of debt you are owed to the University in this regard
• An indication of the academic success of these students for the 2016 year
• The types and extent of support that the University has been able to provide for these students; and
• The consequences which have confronted the University due to the delay in receiving funding for these students.

The DA’s position on the crisis facing higher education in South Africa is clear. We vigorously oppose campus shut-downs, and the violence and intimidation associated with it. Such conduct, by a small-group of students, threatens to destroy the future of all students, and make it even more difficult for poor students in particular to succeed.

That is why we have proposed that no poor person be denied an education because they cannot afford it. We also propose that support, proportional to income be given to the “missing middle”. Unlike #FeesMustFall, we believe that well-off students must pay. It is both ethical and necessary to help poor students succeed.

This portal launched today is an effort to contribute to solving one important aspect of this funding crisis, and ensure that the overwhelming majority of students who want their concerns to be voiced peacefully have an avenue to do so.

It is now up to the ANC government to end its misleading statements and commit to helping those students most in need, as they have promised to do.