South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology has found himself embroiled in a corruption scandal.
January 8 2024
This year has begun with a number of political messes for SA’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC). Among these is that the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Blade Nzimande may be fired or resign after being implicated in a corruption scandal at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
On Monday, the party leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), John Steenhuisen, said that the DA would lay criminal charges against the minister.
The DA’s legal action follows the allegations of corruption levelled against Nzimande and NSFAS’ chairman, Ernest Khosa last week, by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa). On January 4 the civil society organisation released voice recordings of two meetings between Khosa and a representative of an unnamed service provider, alleging they provided evidence that kickbacks were paid to Minister Nzimande and Khosa, along with a payment of R1m to the South African Communist Party (SACP), in return for tenders and protection for service providers. The SACP is chaired by Nzimande.
“These revelations reveal nothing is sacred to the ANC government. Instead of supporting students who are working hard to rise above hardship in order to build a better future for themselves,” Steenhuisen said.
“ANC corruption and mismanagement has created a funding shortfall of over R1.1 bn (at NSFAS) which means that funding will be withdrawn from over 87,000 students, in addition to the 20,000 students who were deprived last year,” he said.
The DA said it would write to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to demand the scope of the SIU’s current investigation into NSFAS be expanded to include the alleged kickbacks paid to Nzimande and the SACP, said Steenhuisen.
The party would submit a request under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to obtain a copy of a Werksmans report into the awarding of the direct payment tenders. Werksmans is a law firm.
In 2022, NSFAS appointed four service providers: Coinvest Africa, Tenet Technology, Ezaga Holdings, and Norraco Corporation to make direct payments to eligible NSFAS beneficiaries. Since then, its payment systems have collapsed, according to Outa, leaving thousands of students without the means to pay for food or accommodation.
Nzimande said in a statement on January 5 that the allegations levelled against him by Outa were baseless. He said he had never used money intended for any of the entities overseen by his department for the SACP. The allegations, contained in a 51-page report released by Outa along with the voice recordings, were “reckless and largely based on gossip”, and were intended to undermine a smooth start to the 2024 academic year, he said.
Nzimande is expected to hold a media briefing later on Monday.
NSFAS has denied the allegations that Khoza had received kickbacks and said its board was committed to clean governance. Outa was not an impartial organisation, it said.
“It is also a concerning trend that Outa’s successive investigative reports are characterised by advocacy for the business interest of some individuals and companies who might have unsuccessfully attempted to solicit business from NSFAS,” it said.
The SACP denies receiving money from NSFAS.
Nzimande may be pressed to resign by the allegations or be fired by Ramaphosa.
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