At the beginning of March, frustrated students took to the streets demanding the immediate release of delayed NSFAS allowances to NSFAS-funded students. Many students lived off of aid provided by non-profit organisations, student structures, and donations from friends while they awaited the release of their allowances. Bezantsi Mgando, a student residing at Varsity Studios, was one of the many students affected. He explained that he had to borrow money from friends in order to survive amid the delay. Communication from the official NSFAS Instagram page explains that allowances would be released on 17 April.
PDBY spoke with an anonymous NSFAS-funded student living in TuksRes who said that the meal allowances provided by their residence help when dealing with delays from NSFAS. Mgando and the anonymous student detail a stark lack of communication from NSFAS regarding the delays, with Mgando detailing that there was no communication, and the TuksRes student explaining that there was only communication from the UP-SRC.
In the middle of March, NSFAS-funded students at NxtGen Student Living were found to have gone days without proper meals and living essentials as a result of their delayed NSFAS allowances. PDBY spoke with NxtGen House Committee Chairperson Ishmael Ubombo to gain further insight into the situation. Ubombo detailed being under immense pressure at the time as students had expressed the urgent need for aid, with many frustrated residents feeling that the accommodation was responsible for the situation and had a duty to resolve it. Ubombo engaged with the residence’s management, who responded positively by providing food parcels to residents soon after the issue was raised.
Additionally, Ubombo got in contact with M-Powerment Care, a non-profit organisation and student society that specialises in community development programmes. M-Powerment Care, in collaboration with student-led non-profit organisations UP-RAG and Aid by Youth UP, organised a food and essentials drive for the students at NxtGen. PDBY spoke with founder and CEO of M-Powerment Care Similo Siyenga who provided that the NGO was made aware of the situation at NxtGen through UP-SRC member Lihle Moncina, as well as several social media posts. The catalyst for the drive was the reports of students searching campus dustbins for food.
Siyenga explains that although the university’s Student Nutrition and Progress Programme (SNAPP) was aware of the issue and was attempting to provide aid, the programme was ultimately not able to provide immediate support due to administrative hold-ups. Therefore, M-Powerment Care stepped in to provide interim relief while students awaited a more permanent solution from the university’s structures. When speaking about the success of the drive, Siyenga once again emphasised the significance of NGOs and student structures in providing aid to struggling students as opposed to waiting for executive university structures to intervene. Siyenga also explained that following the drive, several student structures have reached out, wanting to contribute to ensure that such situations do not happen in the future.
Year after year, NSFAS-funded students struggle through their studies due to the failings of an institution that is supposed to provide aid and ensure the wellbeing of students. NSFAS-funded students are arguably more reliant on the generosity of non-profit organisations, donations, and university student structures than the financial aid scheme itself. However, this is nothing new. The question raised then is: will NSFAS ever be a consistent and reliable structure for student aid?
Visual: Daniel Green
Kofi Donkor