The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday, through its student organisation, it will initiate mass mobilisation campaigns at tertiary education campuses across the country to force President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Blade Nzimande.

Last week, a series of leaked recordings released by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) revealed the details of a criminal cartel operating inside the Department of Higher Education and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The recordings revealed that service providers that were awarded multimillion-rand tenders to administer direct payments to students allegedly paid kickbacks to NSFAS chairperson Ernest Khosa, to Nzimande, and to the South African Communist Party (SACP).

According to Outa, “This was done in return for tenders and protection for service providers.”

DA leader John Steenhuisen said that these revelations demonstrated that nothing was sacred to the African National Congress (ANC) government.

He said the party was preparing criminal charges against Nzimande and was also briefing its legal team to declare the NSFAS board delinquent over the corrupt and irrational direct payment and accommodation tenders.

“This legal action is in keeping with the findings of the State Capture Commission, which recommended that it should become standard practice to declare board members involved in capture and corruption as delinquent,” he said.

Steenhuisen announced that the DA would immediately submit a request under the Promotion of Access to Information Act to obtain a copy of the Werksmans report into the awarding of the direct payment tenders.

The party will write to Ramaphosa and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to demand that the scope of the SIU’s investigation be broadened to include the alleged kickbacks to Nzimande and the SACP.

Steenhuisen explained that instead of supporting students who were working hard to rise above hardship to build a better future for themselves and the country, the ANC only saw “another opportunity to loot”.

He highlighted that the awarding last year by NSFAS of direct payment tenders to companies with no proven track record had resulted in students being charged exorbitant fees for every transaction.

“In many cases, students also received their allowances late or not at all, leaving them unable to even buy food. Thanks to the recently released recordings, we now know why these lucrative tenders were awarded to companies no one had ever heard of: in exchange for kickback payments to Nzimande, Khosa and the SACP,” he said.

SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION

Steenhuisen said in addition to cutting the accommodation allowance by R15 000 per year last year, the scheme now also required educational institutions and private accommodation providers to obtain accreditation at a cost of up to R200 per bed.

By the end of last year, only 6.5% of the beds required for the 2024 academic year had been accredited under the new system.

Steenhuisen believes that the “systemic corruption evident at NSFAS and the Department of Higher Education” is likely to trigger a serious crisis when students return to campuses later this month, only to find that they cannot access accommodation and are being charged to fund corruption every time they try to buy food.

He explained that ANC corruption and mismanagment had created a funding shortfall of over R1.1-billion, which meant that funding would be withdrawn from over 87 000 students, in addition to the 20 000 students who were already deprived last year.

“Instead of firing Nzimande and Khosa, [Ramaphosa] has remained silent, while the ANC has meekly suggested that Nzimande may appear before its so-called integrity committee. The Constitution spells out that only the President has the responsibility to act against corrupt Cabinet ministers,” Steenhuisen said.