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Today, employees of the National Student Fund Aid Scheme (NSFAS) opened a case of theft against former board member for stealing laptops earmarked for under-resourced schools in the Eastern Cape. 

The board member, who was leading the scheme’s delegation, kept ten laptops instead of delivering them to the already identified schools during the Eastern Cape Donation Drive, in March 2026. 

NSFAS said there were 30 laptops earmarked for distributions to six high schools, with each receiving five laptops for communal use. 

“It is shocking that particularly a board member, of an organisation designed to alleviate hardships from economically deprived communities, would be responsible for such an act,” said Professor Hlengani Mathebula. 

He added that he was pleased that NSFAS’s employees have decided to pursue justice on behalf of the voiceless learners; criminality can only thrive when witnesses turn a blind eye to such matters. 

Mathebula further explained that the scheme must only be associated with a certain calibre of leaders and employees, as the impact of sleaze has a devastating impact on the youth who are our country’s future. 

“This act by our colleagues is exemplary. It testifies to the fact that we are turning the corner as 

an organisation, as employees are reclaiming their organisation from the grubby hands of those who have been manipulating it for their own self-enrichment while our children suffered the indignity wrought on by poverty,” explains Mathebula. 

“Children from impoverished backgrounds need all the help they can get from all of us. It is therefore appalling to learn that someone used his position of privilege, being a board member, to steal from the same needy children. It doesn’t get worse than that,” says Prof Mathebula. 

He said that he has full confidence in the South African Police Service (SAPS) to speedily secure justice for the would-be-beneficiaries. 

Issued by the National Student Fund Aid Scheme