'Data integrity issues' to blame for delayed student payments

Crisis talks between the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and various institutions of higher learning – including Nelson Mandela University (NMU) – are due to take place in Cape Town from Thursday in a desperate bid to curtail further student protests.

Disgruntled NMU students embarked on demonstrations earlier this month following protracted delays in the payment of various allowances, including stipends for accommodation, books and food.

NSFAS spokesman Kagisho Mamabolo had cited “data integrity issues” for the interruptions.

Mamabolo explained that the data integrity issues cropped up as the payment process was based on registration confirmations from universities that had to be sent to NSFAS. That information would then have to be checked against NSFAS's own data. 

At the time of the protests, Mamabolo said the process would take about a week. 

However, Mamabolo acknowledged yesterday - more than three weeks later - that not all students had yet received their allowances.

NMU spokeswoman Zandile Mbabela said the outstanding issues would be discussed at a meeting to be held in Cape Town with NSFAS  to determine the extent of the problem.

“A number of issues were raised by students during the protest at the beginning of the month, ranging from  financial aid and shuttle services to safety and security,” Mbabela said.

NMU had then stepped in to assist NSFAS-funded students who were still waiting for their meals, books and transport payments, she said.

“The university immediately resolved to provide emergency financial support to those students, building on to its existing financial aid support interventions.

"With regards to shuttle services, additional shuttles were added to the existing fleet to deal with the increase in demand.

"This included an additional four buses and 10 taxis for Port Elizabeth campuses and one bus – to incorporate the Thembalethu/Pacaltsdorp route – and two smaller vehicles for the George campus,” Mbabela said.

She added that NMU had also adopted an integrated safety and security strategy which was being implemented. 

An emergency fund of more than R38-million had initially been made available by the university in response to the financial woes of the NSFAS-funded students for allowances for books, meals and travelling expenses.

Mbabela said the university was soon afterwards advised by NSFAS that it had begun processing allowances.

The university then had to stop the interim relief intervention for those students already processed by NSFAS, thus reducing the university’s resource intervention significantly to R10.65-million, which will be recovered through the NSFAS system.

 Mamabolo said: “When [NMU] sends through all the outstanding registration data, additional disbursements files will be prepared, and [student] vouchers [will be] disbursed.”