• ACTis has raised five flags for NSFAS and placed two under monitoring.
• Placing NSFAS under an administrator with questionable credentials does not address governance concerns. Given low staff morale, it is critical to ensure that the new leadership has the highest level of integrity.
• While numerous investigations offer an opportunity for renewal and reform, the current working environment suggests organisational decline. This is not conducive to staff asserting their professional independence and resisting irregular practices that may arise.
• Repeated corrupt awards and financial malpractice suggest an informal network may have been operating as a syndicate, enabled by weak governance and a subdued organisational climate. This network’s influence may be declining after implicated senior officials left, but the institution may remain vulnerable to state capture.
• Poor financial reporting has obscured accountability, and oversight mechanisms have failed to protect the institution from undue influence. New developments may bring progress, but without proper governance and the right leadership, NSFAS cannot begin to build resilience.
• While delays or missed payments of allowances and subsidised accommodation for students have occurred every year since 2022 and have been widely reported in the media, NSFAS has not quantified how many students are affected.