Thursday October 19, 2023
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] in the Western Cape welcomes the announcement by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme [ NSFAS] Board that it will fully implement the recommendations of the Advocate Ngcukaitobi and Werksmans Investigative Report.
As NEHAWU, we had called on the board to institute an investigation on the CEO of NSFAS, Mr Andile Nongogo on his questionable role in the appointment of certain service providers that are responsible for the problematic Pay Direct project. Indeed, the board instituted that investigation and it is now concluded.
The preliminary report into the allegations against Mr Nongogo was tabled by the Board and is damning against the CEO and provides the Board enough grounds to show him the door. The union contends that there can be no justification that Mr Nongogo can advance to change the facts about his involvement in the violation of the supply chain management policy, possible relationship with two of the four service providers appointed for the pay direct project as well as failure to perform due diligence on all potential service providers prior to appointing them.
The report paints a bleak picture of the lengths to which Mr Nongogo was willing to go in perverting processes and policies to ensure that his friends were favoured in the appointment of multi-million tenders at NSFAS.
NEHAWU also believes that the magnitude of this elaborate scheme could not have been carried out by Nongogo alone, that there are other managers who acted in cohorts with him and calls on the NSFAS Board to leave no stone unturned but to institute action against those managers with an intention to dismiss them along with Mr Nongogo as they have tarnished the name of the institution.
Considering that more senior managers may have been involved in these irregularities, it is clear that NSFAS has a leadership vacuum. The union believes that the only way to avert this leadership vacuum from resulting into instability and further destruction of NSFAS, is for the Board to fast-tract the process of implementing the recommendations and appoint an interim CEO for not more than six months until the CEO position has been filled.
Lastly, we call on the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande and the Board to ensure top priority is given to NSFAS in order to provide stability of the institution.
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Issued by NEHAWU Western Cape Secretariat
For more information, please contact: Cde Baxolise Mali (NEHAWU Western Cape Provincial Secretary) at 066 3050 591 or Baxolise@nehawu.org.za Or Cde Lucky Bopape (Western Cape Provincial Deputy Secretary) at 083 719 0692 or email: LBopape@gmail.com