Political outrage over cancellation of NSFAS oversight meeting
A meeting of the Higher Education and Training Portfolio Committee was cancelled after Minister Buti Manamela asked for time to finalise his presentation on his decision to place the National Student Financial Aid Scheme under administration.
Image: File
Political parties have voiced their outrage over the cancellation of the Higher Education and Training Portfolio Committee meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, where Minister Buti Manamela was set to clarify his decision to place the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) under administration.
This cancellation came after Manamela requested additional time on Monday to finalise his presentation regarding NSFAS, amidst ongoing court challenges from board members contesting his earlier decision.
Some board members had earlier resigned amid reports of differences with Manamela over the appointment of the CEO.
DA MP Delmaine Christians said the meeting could not proceed after neither the Department of Higher Education and Training nor NSFAS submitted presentations ahead of it.
“Minister Manamela has had weeks to prepare for today (Tuesday). The DA questions what Manamela is trying to hide from Parliament and the public of South Africa,” she said.
Christians noted that NSFAS Administrator Professor Hlengani Mathebula had, in a separate letter, raised governance and financial concerns regarding the participation of former board members in the cancelled meeting.
“These developments now point to a rapidly escalating governance and legal crisis within NSFAS, with Parliament itself increasingly being drawn into institutional instability, leadership disputes, procedural conflict, and uncertainty around accountability processes.”
She also said placing NSFAS under administration was presented as a measure to stabilise the institution.
“Yet within days, the matter has escalated into court action, governance disputes, delayed accountability to Parliament, and now the collapse of a critical parliamentary oversight engagement.
Christians also said South Africans deserved full transparency on the circumstances that led to the administration's decision, the legal and governance implications now unfolding, and whether the intervention intended to restore stability is instead deepening the crisis at NSFAS.
MK Party MP Mnqobi Msezane said Manamela should step down because he was failing at handpicking individuals and appointing them as administrators of strategic entities.
“He is now evading accountability by refusing to present before the portfolio committee on why he has put NSFAS under administration. We will expose him for what he is,” Msezane said.
EFF MP Sihle Lonzi said it appeared Manamela was trying to avoid appearing before Parliament on the NSFAS matters.
Lonzi has since written to House Chairperson for Committees, Cedric Frolick, expressing dismay at the cancellation of the meeting.
He said the meeting had been agreed to by MPs and then placed on the parliamentary programme.
“It is, therefore, concerning that members are now being informed on the eve of the meeting, through informal communication channels such as Whatsapp messages, that the meeting will not proceed.
“We do not believe this approach is parliamentary, as it is inconsistent with the formal procedures that govern meetings of Parliament and its committee,” Lonzi wrote in his letter.
He stated that the committee has previously convened meetings under similar circumstances.
He was referring to instances when former minister Nobuhle Nkabane and University of Limpopo failed to comply with committee directives.
“If allowed to stand, this approach risks establishing a dangerous precedent that parliamentary oversight meetings may be unilaterally deferred or abandoned at the last moment through informal communication whenever accountability becomes inconvenient or contested,” said Lonzi.