Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande says that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) does not have enough funds to pay for the 2021 academic year.
“NSFAS is facing a shortfall on its funding for 2021, which means that it has been unable to confirm funding for new university students,” he stated.
Nzimande said that there are few reasons why the scheme is facing this shortfall – but a primary reason is Covid-19.
“We had to continue to pay NSFAS allowances even at the time when universities were closed, as part of students’ access to multimodal teaching and learning.
“This means we had an extended academic year which we did not allocate additional money for. Secondly, we had budget cuts across government departments,” Nzimande concluded.
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