JOHANNESBURG - The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) said the loss of access to SARS and Home Affairs systems has left them in the dark.
The Auditor-General recently announced that NSFAS had funded 822 deceased students in the 2024/2025 financial year.
The report revealed that NSFAS had paid R0,21 billion (R210 million) to students who are not eligible for funding.
Asked about exactly how much of the R210million was paid to the deceased students, NSFAS spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said he was not at liberty to reveal that information yet.
"The details will be in the annual report which is still to be tabled in Parliament," Mnisi said.
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It is not yet clear if the money paid to deceased beneficiaries was for tuition, accommodation, or allowances.
Over 14,000 students did not qualify for funding as their household income exceeded the eligibility threshold.
A further 300 students were receiving both NSFAS funding and the Social Relief Grants.
Higher Education Deputy Minister Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube said that, after the loss of access to the national systems, they cannot verify whether people are alive, nor can they confirm people's income effectively.
"We have asked NSFAS to institute a forensic investigation on a number of issues," says Dube-Ncube.
In a statement, the department said they do not know exactly how much was allocated to each matter.
"What we are in a position to do is investigate, recover and prevent recurrence," spokesperson Matshepo Seedat said.
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The department and funder have also met with the Special Investigations Unit (SUI). The meetings have been to follow up on past matters that were highlighted by the auditor-general and new financing matters that have since come to light.
According to Dube-Ncube, one of the things that has piqued the department's interest is the need to investigate accommodation service providers. These include staff who, despite the entity's shortcomings, do further verifications before approving applications.
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"The system needs to be cleaned up," says Dube-Ncube.
"NSFAS is a very important scheme that we need in our country; it has to be put to good use so that it continues the job it was established for," she added.
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Dube-Ncube has lamented the fact that there are boards for everything in the department, yet it doesn't seem like there is efficacy in their work.
"We need to ask whether the system needs to be run this way," she said.