Metroscan Medical College

[Zareen Zapata]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M L D Ntombela): Hon members, may I kindly draw your attention to the following, I have received information that a number of Ministers are not available to answer questions of the Social Service cluster being taken in the House today. Rule 138(3) and 138(4) do, however, provide for a Minister to authorise his or her Deputy Minister to reply to your question directed at that Minister, or if a Minister and his or her Deputy are absent for another Cabinet

Minister to respond to the question. So, Deputy Ministers and Acting Ministers are authorised by the Rules to respond to the questions. Thank you very much. Hon member?

Mr D W MACPHERSON: House Chairperson, while we certainly have had a better run of legs of Ministers coming to questions from the House. I'd please ask you through the programming committee to reiterate the importance that this only happens once in a five-part rotation and the Ministers need to arrange their diaries to be in Parliament ... [Interjections.] ...

Mr N SINGH: ... thank you for providing the information to us, but it is a normal practice that either at the Chief Whips Forum or any other forum, the Chief Whips are informed whether certain Ministers will be available or not available to answer questions, and unfortunately no information was given to us earlier on. We will have no problem if a Minister is answering from Timbuktu or Canada, or watching the cricket in India or whatever. We have no problem with that, but if a Minister is not available to answer at all, that will be a problem and that is information that should have been given to us, and I hope next time that is done timeously. Thank you very much.

Question 661:

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION: Hon House Chairperson, the response to the question is as follows, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, has not submitted to the Auditor-General statements for the financial year 2022-23, which is the current financial year and, yes, the reasons why that has not been done is precisely because of the delays in finalising the audit for the financial year 2021-22. The NSFAS has since entered into an understanding with the Auditor-General that they will submit the 2022-23 financial statements by 15 February 2024. We cannot, however, ascertain when the statements will be made public because that's the purview of the Auditor-General upon receiving and auditing the statement. Thank you, House Chairperson.

Besides the report on the investigation into the direct payment saga, the NSFAS is also ignoring the three-month tender given to Futgenx Technology of R4 million to supply a digital tool to calculate student allowances which was not completed and Futgenx is also linked to the Services Seta. All of this unfolding while students have to beg for their allowances ghost students receive funding and accommodation, and service providers find themselves in financial distress due to nonpayment for services rendered since February this year. No wonder the NSFAS is not willing to present its 2021-

22 and 2022-23 audit outcomes. This is a disgrace, Minister, to come here and tell us by 15 February 2024, we will only see the 2022-23 audit outcome, while we still await the previous years. So, Deputy Minister, what measures were put in place to ensure that the board adheres to the financial requirements of the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA and that they do not undermine the Auditor-General's role in auditing their outcome, and what have you been doing with your Minister to ensure that the NSFAS is being brought to book?

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND

INNOVATION: House Chairperson, I think firstly the question is related to the financial statements of 2021-22 and 2022-23 and I think we have responded to that question. That's the first thing. The second thing is that we are not undermining or the NSFAS is not in any way undermining the Auditor-General. They have entered into an agreement with the Auditor General that the financial statements for 2022-23 will be submitted by 15 January 2022, and also that this delay was caused by the delays which we have explained both to the Auditor-General and also to the portfolio committee which were necessitated by the transition from having the NSFAS as a loan dispensing scheme into a bursary or grant dispensing scheme.

What I can say is that the Minister has received the report from Werksmans and through his legal advice he is looking into that report and that anything else that emanates from that report, the Minister will make a statement and over and above that, the chairperson of the NSFAS, on behalf of the NSFAS board, has also made public statements on the actions that they will be taking in implementing the Werksmans Report.

We believe that these are sufficient measures which will necessitate stability in the NSFAS and over and above that we, yes, have had a few challenges with some of the students not receiving their student allowances, but in general, we believe the disbursement of allowances to students have been going on quite well for the majority of our institutions and students. Thank you, House Chairperson.

Ms J S MANANISO: Thank you, House Chair, hon Minister, for recognising the interventions to combat the mismanagement in the NSFAS, first by the law enforcement agencies such as the Special Investigating Unit, which found a scam where more than R5 billion in NSFAS money was possibly allocated to students who did not qualify to be funded by the institution. This includes investigations which led to repayments to the NSFAS from some universities and colleges. The NSFAS CEO has recently been dismissed for matters related to the payment system. What consequence management interventions have the Minister and the NSFAS management implemented in relation to the NSFAS disbursement challenges? I thank you.

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION: House Chairperson, I think we the chairperson of the NSFAS in an elaborate statement indicated what the NSFAS

will be doing in terms of consequence management. Firstly, the action that has been taken towards the former CEO, is based on the recommendation of the Werksmans investigations. Secondly, the chairperson has also indicated that they will be taking further action against senior managers who may have been involved or implicated by the Werksmans Report and I think a progress report to that effect will be furnished to the portfolio committee.

Thirdly, the four ... [Inaudible.] ... companies that were appointed to disperse the grants to the students. There is a process, I have been assured by the NSFAS, that is in place to ensure that they follow through the recommendations of the Werksmans Report in that regard. It is not a decision that can be taken easily, that of determination of the contract, because we have to take into consideration the fact that they are responsible for the payment of students allowances currently, but also that there are legal implications in terms of the termination of such contracts and I think, until such processes have been concluded, the details will be given to both the portfolio committee. This House and to our country.

Mr M SHIKWAMBANA: House Chair, the National Financial Student Aid, Scheme did not submit their financial statement for the

2022-23 financial year. To us as the EFF, this does not come as a shock because we know that the National Financial Student Aid Scheme board and its leadership do not take accountability seriously and all this happened because they know very well that they have a Minister for their protection. Recently, we heard a lot of corruption allegations implicating the leadership of the entity. Companies have been appointed unlawfully to disburse allowances to the students. The CEO of the entity has been fired and he made serious revelations of corruption happening in the entity.

Since they did not submit the financial statement again with their corruption allegations, which are implicating the board members. As the EFF, we can safely say this noncompliance was done deliberately. It was done deliberately so because there is a report, Minister, that was supposed to be sitting in the

... [Inaudible.] ... of the people.

Mr M SHIKWAMBANA: Yes, my question is when are we receiving the report of Professor Yunus Ballim that was having implications for people from the NSFAS board who were the

reasons for the problems we are sitting with today in the NSFAS? When the report becomes public. It is a public report that is for the people for them to have that report because this corruption is happening. [Time expired.]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION: Hon House Chairperson, I think the member needs to familiarise himself with the details and reasons why the financial statements for 2021-22 were not submitted, which mainly has to do with the transition between the NSFAS dispensing loans into the NSFAS dispensing grants and the confusion that existed between the transfer from the NSFAS to the universities and the universities paying back that money to the NSFAS and the universities, the Auditor-General and the NSFAS are working around the clock to make sure that we finalise all of those details. As it relates to all the other reports that the member is demanding, I think we'll get more information on that, but as far as I'm concerned, all the reports concerning whatever challenges that the NSFAS has faced in the past have been made public and I suppose that's

why the member is aware of it and if not we will try and furnish the member with the report.

Mnu S S ZONDO: Ngithi kuyishwa nje mhlonishwa osesiHlalweni ukuthi uNgqongqoshe anqume ukungaveli lapha enkundleni ukuzophendula mayela nalezi zindaba esikhuluma ngazo ngoba sesikutholile ukuthi u-CEO we-NSFAS ...

... abaphathi ngale nselela abayenzile yokuqoka izinkampani ezingekho esimweni nezingafanelekile ukuthola imisebenzi laphayana e-NSFAS. Kodwake alukho usuku olungafiki. Uyohamba hambe aze afike sizibuzele mathupha ukuthi simuthembe kanjani ukuthi usengaqhubeka ahole lo mnyango uma kwenzeka izinhlekelele ezinje phambi kwakhe futhi zenziwe ngabangani bakhe abathunyelwe nguye ngokuthanda kwakhe.

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