A sum of R5.1 billion was mistakenly paid to some 40 000 students by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) between 2018 and 2021, MPs have been told.
This emerged in a briefing to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) by Special Investigating Unit (SIU) head Andy Mothibi and director-general of higher education Nkosinathi Sishi.
According to BusinessLIVE, MPs were told that the students who received funding in error had parents who earned more than the limit of R350 000 annually. The R5.1bn, paid over the four years, is a fraction of the R49bn allocated for the 2022/23 financial year.
The report says it is not clear how many students committed deliberate fraud and how many didn’t realise they didn’t qualify, but that some deliberately used grandparents’ proof of income in order to stay below the threshold.
MPs were told the SIU was investigating maladministration, unlawful conduct by employees of the NSFAS, and the negligent and unlawful expenditure of public money between 2016 and 2022.
In 2017, Walter Sisulu University student Sibongile Mani went on a spending spree after her account was erroneously credited with R14m by the NSFAS instead of R1 400. She was convicted of fraud after spending R800 000.
According to City Press, the erroneous payments were made to 40 044 students at 76 institutions across the country. The highest number of students involved were in Gauteng (17 788), the Western Cape (5 481) and KwaZulu-Natal (4 409).
[Image: WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay]