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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The South African Union of Students (SAUS) is calling for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to resolve current issues such as students’ funding appeals not being responded to timeously, a shortage of accommodation within the higher education sector and the quick release of student funds.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SAUS says fixing these issues will allow a peaceful take-off for the 2025 academic year.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“If NSFAS stabilises their systems and ensures that they give quick responses, clean all outstanding issues such as appeals for this particular year (2024) and ensure payments of accommodations are processed, it will allow a peaceful start to the 2025 academic year. If these are not resolved they will cause unnecessary problems,” SAUS secretary-general Lukhanyo Daweti said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NSFAS appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training on Wednesday, 27 November, to present its readiness for the 2025 academic year. NSFAS administrator Freeman Nomvalo, who was appointed early this year, told the committee that NSFAS received 608,488 applications and 442,079 are provisionally funded for 2025.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Nomvalo, there are 273,837 accredited beds for TVET colleges as well as universities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“There are still beds that need to be accredited, and more work still needs to be done in this regard. The number of beds not accredited is 17,520,” Nomvalo said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daweti told the committee and NSFAS that the student accommodation shortage is a yearly challenge.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“SAUS calls for expansion of beds within the sector to respond to the current demand of beds, which is estimated to be around half a million. NSFAS should enter into credible partnerships, particularly with developers that have capital and who are interested to invest in student accommodation,” Daweti said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this year, Daily Maverick reported that the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) warned of a “student accommodation timebomb”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“NSFAS announced that it needs 397,000 beds for NSFAS-funded students in 2024, but by 4 October 2023 the scheme reported to the Higher Education Portfolio Committee that there were only 25,803 (or 6.5%) of the required beds accredited. </span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is highly unlikely that there will be enough beds accredited by the time universities and Tvet colleges start in January 2024,” Outa’s Rudie Heyneke said.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more: </b><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-02-12-desperate-cput-students-forced-to-sleep-on-floor-amid-ongoing-nsfas-funding-fiasco/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Desperate CPUT students forced to sleep on floor amid ongoing NSFAS funding fiasco</span></a>\r\n<h4><b>Appeals</b></h4>\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1858087\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ED_452474.jpg\" alt=\"NSFAS protest\" width=\"1820\" height=\"1095\" /> <em>Students march to the NSFAS head office in Cape Town on 24 May 2023 South Africa to protest against the scheme’s payment methods. NSFAS appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education on 27 November 2024 to outline its readiness plan for the 2025 academic year. (Photo: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2481283\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ED_536551-1.jpg\" alt=\"Lukhanyo Daweti \" width=\"1782\" height=\"1127\" /> <em>South Africa Union of Students secretary-general Lukhanyo Daweti has called on NSFAS to sort out outstanding funding appeals ahead of the 2025 academic year. (Photo: Siyabonga Goni)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the committee meeting, SAUS called on NSFAS to resolve the outstanding funding appeals for 2024 so that there would be no backlog.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University and TVET students send appeals to NSFAS if their funding has been cut off due to a lack of documentation such as parents’ IDs, South African Social Security Agency consent forms and South African Revenue Service reports showing the income of parents or guardians. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daweti said: “NSFAS appeals have proven to be the major challenge… Currently, close to 10,000 students are still stuck on the appeals basket and we are heading towards the end of the 2024 academic year.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Some students who have been successful on their appeals are told that the entity has exhausted its budget. What will happen to these students in the 2025 registration period? Debt of 2024 academic year?” </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In August 2024, MPs sitting on the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education expressed shock at what they described as a small number of staff receiving more than 90,000 appeals since April 2024, with each employee only able to respond to 100 per day.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A total of 35,226 appeals remained unresolved this year.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more: </b><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-08-22-mps-voice-shock-over-r2m-rent-for-nsfas-swish-c-town-office/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NSFAS battles backlogs, staff and tech woes as MPs criticise R2m rent for swish Cape Town offices</span></a>\r\n<h4><b>NSFAS decentralising</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NSFAS head office is in Cape Town, where it pays more than </span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-18-nsfas-set-to-leave-r2m-a-month-cape-town-offices-after-minister-moves-to-terminate-lease/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">R2-million a month for rent</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There have been calls from MPs for NSFAS to decentralise and have a bigger presence in other provinces and higher education institutions to assist students.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Nomvalo, NSFAS is in the process of establishing delivery sites in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Eastern Cape.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We won’t need that whole building in Cape Town once all of this happens. This is to make sure that NSFAS is accessible,” Nomvalo said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nomvalo said that NSFAS staff will be deployed to universities and TVET colleges to assist students in a timely manner.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick asked Nomvalo when NSFAS would exit its building in Cape Town. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This process takes time and we need to find space to where we are going… We are going to work on this so that we follow all the obligations,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The deadline for NSFAS funding applications for 2025 is on 15 December 2024. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"name": "South Africa Union of Students secretary-general Lukhanyo Daweti has called on NSFAS to sort out outstanding funding appeals ahead of the 2025 academic year. (Photo: Siyabonga Goni)\n",
"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The South African Union of Students (SAUS) is calling for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to resolve current issues such as students’ funding appeals not being responded to timeously, a shortage of accommodation within the higher education sector and the quick release of student funds.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SAUS says fixing these issues will allow a peaceful take-off for the 2025 academic year.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“If NSFAS stabilises their systems and ensures that they give quick responses, clean all outstanding issues such as appeals for this particular year (2024) and ensure payments of accommodations are processed, it will allow a peaceful start to the 2025 academic year. If these are not resolved they will cause unnecessary problems,” SAUS secretary-general Lukhanyo Daweti said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NSFAS appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training on Wednesday, 27 November, to present its readiness for the 2025 academic year. NSFAS administrator Freeman Nomvalo, who was appointed early this year, told the committee that NSFAS received 608,488 applications and 442,079 are provisionally funded for 2025.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Nomvalo, there are 273,837 accredited beds for TVET colleges as well as universities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“There are still beds that need to be accredited, and more work still needs to be done in this regard. The number of beds not accredited is 17,520,” Nomvalo said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daweti told the committee and NSFAS that the student accommodation shortage is a yearly challenge.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“SAUS calls for expansion of beds within the sector to respond to the current demand of beds, which is estimated to be around half a million. NSFAS should enter into credible partnerships, particularly with developers that have capital and who are interested to invest in student accommodation,” Daweti said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this year, Daily Maverick reported that the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) warned of a “student accommodation timebomb”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“NSFAS announced that it needs 397,000 beds for NSFAS-funded students in 2024, but by 4 October 2023 the scheme reported to the Higher Education Portfolio Committee that there were only 25,803 (or 6.5%) of the required beds accredited. </span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is highly unlikely that there will be enough beds accredited by the time universities and Tvet colleges start in January 2024,” Outa’s Rudie Heyneke said.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more: </b><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-02-12-desperate-cput-students-forced-to-sleep-on-floor-amid-ongoing-nsfas-funding-fiasco/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Desperate CPUT students forced to sleep on floor amid ongoing NSFAS funding fiasco</span></a>\r\n<h4><b>Appeals</b></h4>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1858087\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1820\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-1858087\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ED_452474.jpg\" alt=\"NSFAS protest\" width=\"1820\" height=\"1095\" /> <em>Students march to the NSFAS head office in Cape Town on 24 May 2023 South Africa to protest against the scheme’s payment methods. NSFAS appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education on 27 November 2024 to outline its readiness plan for the 2025 academic year. (Photo: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2481283\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1782\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2481283\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ED_536551-1.jpg\" alt=\"Lukhanyo Daweti \" width=\"1782\" height=\"1127\" /> <em>South Africa Union of Students secretary-general Lukhanyo Daweti has called on NSFAS to sort out outstanding funding appeals ahead of the 2025 academic year. (Photo: Siyabonga Goni)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the committee meeting, SAUS called on NSFAS to resolve the outstanding funding appeals for 2024 so that there would be no backlog.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University and TVET students send appeals to NSFAS if their funding has been cut off due to a lack of documentation such as parents’ IDs, South African Social Security Agency consent forms and South African Revenue Service reports showing the income of parents or guardians. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daweti said: “NSFAS appeals have proven to be the major challenge… Currently, close to 10,000 students are still stuck on the appeals basket and we are heading towards the end of the 2024 academic year.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Some students who have been successful on their appeals are told that the entity has exhausted its budget. What will happen to these students in the 2025 registration period? Debt of 2024 academic year?” </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In August 2024, MPs sitting on the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education expressed shock at what they described as a small number of staff receiving more than 90,000 appeals since April 2024, with each employee only able to respond to 100 per day.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A total of 35,226 appeals remained unresolved this year.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more: </b><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-08-22-mps-voice-shock-over-r2m-rent-for-nsfas-swish-c-town-office/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NSFAS battles backlogs, staff and tech woes as MPs criticise R2m rent for swish Cape Town offices</span></a>\r\n<h4><b>NSFAS decentralising</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NSFAS head office is in Cape Town, where it pays more than </span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-18-nsfas-set-to-leave-r2m-a-month-cape-town-offices-after-minister-moves-to-terminate-lease/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">R2-million a month for rent</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There have been calls from MPs for NSFAS to decentralise and have a bigger presence in other provinces and higher education institutions to assist students.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Nomvalo, NSFAS is in the process of establishing delivery sites in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Eastern Cape.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We won’t need that whole building in Cape Town once all of this happens. This is to make sure that NSFAS is accessible,” Nomvalo said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nomvalo said that NSFAS staff will be deployed to universities and TVET colleges to assist students in a timely manner.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick asked Nomvalo when NSFAS would exit its building in Cape Town. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This process takes time and we need to find space to where we are going… We are going to work on this so that we follow all the obligations,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The deadline for NSFAS funding applications for 2025 is on 15 December 2024. </span><b>DM</b>",
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Students march to the NSFAS head office in Cape Town on 24 May 2023 South Africa to protest against the scheme’s payment methods. NSFAS appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education on 27 November 2024 to outline its readiness plan for the 2025 academic year. (Photo: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images)
South Africa Union of Students secretary-general Lukhanyo Daweti has called on NSFAS to sort out outstanding funding appeals ahead of the 2025 academic year. (Photo: Siyabonga Goni)