Deputy Higher Education Minister Nomusa Dube-Ncube has demanded that those responsible for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) disbursing funds to more than 800 deceased students be arrested, describing the situation as unjustifiable and a clear sign of administrative failure.
Dube-Ncube was responding to findings in the Auditor-General’s 2024/25 report, which revealed that NSFAS made payments to students listed as deceased according to Department of Home Affairs records. The report highlighted serious lapses in verification processes at the scheme, which provides financial assistance for tuition and related costs to eligible students from poor and working-class families.
Student organisations have expressed outrage, noting that the funds paid to deceased beneficiaries could have supported living students who were either unfunded or defunded despite meeting academic requirements. One student leader described the payments as “absolutely irresponsible,” pointing out that many qualifying students, including those who passed matric but could not secure admission due to lack of funding, continue to be excluded while public resources are wasted.
“Government always says there’s always a shortfall of funding at the beginning of the year and in the middle of the year as well,” the representative said. “We know that there are a lot of students who are defunded. But this also highlights the irregularity or the flaws within the system and also coordination within government and institutions of higher learning.”
NSFAS attributed the error to a lapsed contract with the Department of Home Affairs, which prevented the scheme from verifying students’ vital status in real time. Dube-Ncube rejected this explanation outright, stating that it does not justify the continued payments.
The South African Union of Students voiced deep concern over persistent administrative and governance challenges at NSFAS, referencing multiple changes in administration that have failed to resolve underlying issues.
“It is extremely worrying. It speaks to the administrative and the governance challenges that the entity would have had,” a union representative said. “We speak of multiple administrators that were appointed within the institution and it seems like they’ve still not gotten it right. So I think that the new leadership must reflect deeply on this audit finding.”
Dube-Ncube emphasised that the Department of Higher Education expects concrete action, including arrests where wrongdoing is established and recovery of misallocated funds.
“It cannot be that at this day and age people should just get away with things,” she said. “South Africans are tired of us talking; we need to see action. There has to be somewhere where we stop the rot.”
The department has instructed NSFAS to submit a comprehensive report within three months detailing how the payments occurred and outlining remedial steps taken to prevent recurrence. Attempts to obtain comment directly from NSFAS were unsuccessful.
The revelations have intensified calls for improved data-sharing between government departments and stricter oversight of NSFAS to ensure that limited public funds reach deserving students rather than being lost to systemic failures or potential fraud.