The Private Student Housing Association (PSHA) has warned the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to pay its members, to avoid disruptions to the 2025 academic year.
Image: Brendan Magaar / Independent Newspapers
As the 2025 academic year at universities and other institutions of higher learning across South Africa is set to begin, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) says it has been in engagements with Private Student Housing Association (PSHA), in a bid to resolve the debacle around outstanding payments for accommodation providers.
On Wednesday, IOL reported that (PSHA) has warned that students may not be able to return to their residences if the financial scheme fails to pay the outstanding debt within the next 14 days.
In a statement, chief executive officer Kagisho Mamabolo said the PSHA members regret having to adopt this tough position, but it is something they are unable to avoid.
Mamabolo said the association previously advocated for direct rental payments from universities rather than from NSFAS itself.
However, this did not happen.
The association, which provides accommodation to more than 80,000 students, said NSFAS owes a sum of R44 million to its members, from 2024.
The association warned this could potentially disrupt the academic year’s resumption for 2025 and create a nightmare scenario for both students and their parents.
In response, on Friday the NSFAS has requested the accommodation providers to provide a list of all affected landlords and students.
“The NSFAS administrator calls upon the PSHA to furnish NSFAS with the list of affected accommodation providers and students so that the situation can be immediately resolved. The call also goes to all accommodation providers who have outstanding legitimate claims to also submit their lists to NSFAS for further processing and verification,”
NSFAS also reminded all accommodation providers that payments of student accommodation will only be finalised on receipt of legitimate accommodation claims.
“NSFAS will validate the list and process payments of legitimate claims, which might not have been paid through institutions and NSFAS payment service providers. In the current academic year, NSFAS is implementing measures to ensure certainty and clarity about claims and disbursements,” said the institution which is a government entity under the Department of Higher Education and Training.
“As a result, the NSFAS administrator urges all accommodation providers with 2024 outstanding claims, to send their claims to the following dedicated email address NSFASAccomProv@nsfas.org.za for further engagement with NSFAS.”
Previously, the Private Student Housing Association warned that the failure to pay tertiary education landlords also risks disrupting the provision of higher education.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
IOL
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