NSFAS, CHE & SAQA responses to questions

Meeting report

Entities’ response to Committee’s questions

The Chairperson said the meeting was a continuation of one that was held two weeks back. He welcomed the three entities that were there to submit their answers to the Committee on questions raised by the Members during the previous encounter.

National Student Financial Aid Scheme

Dr Randall Carolissen, Administrator: National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), responded to the question on measures that had been put in place to reduce irregular expenditure within the entity. Systems had been implemented to monitor and reduce irregular expenditure. NSFAS classified irregular expenditure in into four categories:

1. Shifting of earmarked funds (historic debt), which amounted to R1.963 billion;
2. Disbursements with respect to Non-compliance with Laws and Regulations (NOCLAR), which amounted to R4.359 billion ;
3. Disbursements in excess of contract amounts -- R1.236 billion;
4. Other, which amounted to R6 million

In Category A, there was a case of erroneous approval, and there were no additional processes required to prevent this, as an improved understanding of what approval was required had been gained.

With regard to Category B, the irregular expenditure related to erroneous disbursements due to inadequate controls in place, and was thus in non-compliance with s51 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

There were 26 sub-categories within the irregular expenditure relating to NOCLAR, of which R442m was related to over-disbursements on what was known as the sBux channel. The remainder related to a series of issues, including the master data set up, a lack of data management standards and processes, a lack of access control, and the lack of, or incorrect, loans and bursary rules being implemented and enforced.

In order to correct this, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) rules, as they pertained to progression, N+ and course codes, had been clarified, and improved processes and automated processes had been implemented in order to reduce the erroneous funding of students in violation of these rules. This had been key in lowering disbursements to incorrect students.

Automated validations had been developed and implemented at different data points, from the point of receiving registration data from institutions to the disbursement process, and this had reduced the data anomalies in NSFAS systems. The disbursement process had been mapped and documented, and the process and authorisation controls strengthened in order to reduce the likelihood of error.

The NSFAS Wallet processes had been automated, and manual intervention in this process had been reduced. The ability to change mobile numbers had been restricted, as had other sensitive functions. Added control procedures had been implemented to strengthen controls and reduce student accounts being compromised.

With regards to the action to be taken, he said that the master data set up processes had been formalised, requiring documented authorisation and review, the ability to make data changes had been formalised and restricted, and audit logs had been implemented on certain databases in order to detect unauthorised changes.

There was a project that was aimed at shifting from using mobile technology as a direct allowance payment mechanism, to one that made use of a banking solution. This would allow NSFAS to link a student identity document (ID) to the bank account in a verifiable manner – a control that was not available in the current NSFAS Wallet solution.

He stated that two fraud hotlines were now active -- one independent and one manned by a specialist team of call centre agents -- and processes had been implemented to deal with student complaints as they arose each day.

In Category C, the irregular expenditure had arisen as a result of the system generating loan agreements at an incorrect (lower value) level, and the disbursements to those students had been in terms of their NSFAS loan awards. The over-disbursements had thus been a technical contract issue, and required that the contracts be rectified. He emphasised that the National Credit Act required that those amended contracts be signed physically.

Where the disbursements were in excess of the NSFAS award value and the contract value, this had been due to a lack of adequate controls in place when processing what was knowm as “top up” disbursements. As a result, the process had since been strengthened to prevent similar over-disbursements in the future.

With regard to Category D, the investigation into the investment in non-approved investment facilities was near finalisation. Preliminary findings indicated no fraudulent activity, so an application to have this condoned would be made. NSFAS now had an approved Investment policy which ensured that any surplus funds were invested only in terms of National Treasury regulations.

Dr Carolissen moved on to the question about action being taken against employees involved in fraudulent activities, and said that consequence management had been implemented. All cases of suspected fraud, involving both employees and syndicates, had been handed to the Commercial Crime unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS). Three employees had been arrested for fraud in relation to diverting funds that were meant for a student, and that three employees had resigned after they were found to have lied about their qualifications. He added that two employees had tampered with sick notes by changing the dates, therefore defrauding the organisation.

 Answering the question on methods to prevent fraudulent activities, he said there were improvements in the cyber security systems of NSFAS. During 2019, students had reported that their MYNSFAS portal accounts were being hijacked and their allowances being stolen. As a preventive measure, the MYNSFAS portal had been updated with improved security measures, and since the update no cases of that nature had been reported.

NSFAS had been asked about the implications of reorganising the student funding for the 2020 academic year, and was in the process of quantifying the cost of extending the year by an additional three months. Based on current registration data received from the universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges, the estimated cost would be R9.9 billion, broken down as R7.5 billion to universities and R2.4 billion for TVET colleges.  This assumed that NSFAS would continue to pay the tuition and allowances for the extended period.

Answering the question on NSFAS’s role in monitoring the disbursement of funds by institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said that NSFAS had instituted a financial reconciliation programme down to the student level. As the registration data on which correct allowances could be allocated were received in April, all upfront payments had had to be reconciled. The request for remittances had been made to all institutions, but the lockdown had proved an obstacle, as thus far NSFAS had received only 20% of all remittances. It continued to monitor the colleges who were paying allowances to students directly. There were currently 12 TVET colleges that continued to pay students directly, and NSFAS had requested these colleges to submit feedback on who they had paid at a student level.

Delivering the progress report with regard to the finalisation of outstanding student appeals, he submitted that there were 9 484 First Time Entering Student (FTEN) appeals received from new students in 2020, of which 4 035 had been successful. Most FTEN appeals were rejected on the basis of the income threshold, courses not funded, or where there was insufficient information provided to support the appeal. On the continuing students’ appeals in universities, he said that the number of appeals recommended had been 21 330, and that the number of those approved by NSFAS was 16 527. TVET colleges had a recommended number of 2 214 appeals, and 2 039 were approved.

Responding to allegations that the compilation of the NSFAS 2020/21 APP was outsourced to an individual at a cost of R1 million, he said a formal procurement process was followed and concluded in accordance with the legislative prescripts -- PFMA and Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) -- for the appointment of a service provider for the advisory work regarding the strategic plan and annual performance plan, and the value of that procurement award had been R490 000.

Asked whether NSFAS was involved in the procurement of laptops for students, and where the budget for that would come from, Dr Carolissen said that NSFAS’s proposal had been sent to the Minister, in consultation with National Treasury, for his consideration. If approval and funding was granted, NSFAS would provide the funding to students through the institutions, which would procure the laptops in terms of the procurement prescripts.

Answering the question on the reasons for the entity aiming for an unqualified audit opinion in 2020, he said the target in the presentation should have been “qualified audit opinion” for 2020, as per the submitted APP.

He explained the impact of COVID-19 on student loan recovery, saying the recoveries from previous NSFAS loan beneficiaries seemed to have been negatively affected by the current economic conditions, as well as the high unemployment rate. However, this had already been experienced before the pandemic’s impact. While recoveries for the month of March (R45.7 million) had remained constant at the monthly average, this had decreased significantly when compared year-on-year. Even though the entity had not yet seen a noticeable decrease in loan recoveries, it expected to see this in the coming months as the impact of the pandemic increased.

Regarding allegations that some Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) students were no longer receiving their allowances, he said that NSFAS’s unfunded students were subject to the audit of the N+ Rule, and students that were identified to have exceeded the rule were unfunded to avoid irregular expenditure.

As to whether there was a possibility of giving a payment holiday to students who were repaying their loans, on the account of the COVID-19 pandemic, NSFAS would seek direction from the Department of Higher Education in concurrence with Minister of Finance on the possibility of extending a payment holiday in cases where this was specifically needed and motivated as such. If any debtor was in financial distress as result of Covid-19, that debtor needed to provide proof of this, and it would be evaluated on a case by case basis.

In the absence of a directive from the Department of Higher Education or Ministry of Finance, NSFAS had adopted an approach in which it continued to recover where debtors were willing and able to make those repayments. NSFAS felt that this was increasingly important in the current economic climate, where NSFAS may possibly be required to fund students for an extended period as a result of the impact of the pandemic, and these funds could be needed for this. He emphasised that general NSFAS repayments were relatively lower than a typical bank repayment (based on the individual’s affordability on commencement of employment) and therefore some debtors continued paying if they were still able to do so.

Referring to the inconsistency in the targets presented in the APP presented, NSFAS had acknowledged these at the start of the meeting, and the addendum would follow. The target on page 32 on cyber security had stated level 1 as the entity’s target, but it had been captured incorrectly in the quarterly report, and on page 34, two indicators which referred to the level of branding awareness and targets had been corrected.

He said that the APP had not been outsourced, but a strategic session of the executive committee (EXCO) had been convened with an independent provider to assist the entity to comply with the new framework, because its planning unit had produced a disastrous product.

Answering the question on whether NSFAS had used the period of the lockdown to engage with institutions that were struggling with the disbursement of funds and student allowances, he said a questionnaire had been sent to colleges to assess their capability to continue to pay students during the lockdown, and initially there were three colleges which had responded that they could not continue to pay from the 18 non-Wallet colleges. NSFAS moved those colleges to the NSFAS Wallet in April, and there were three more colleges who had been on-boarded into the NSFAS Wallet and would be paid in May.

Addressing the key issues that related to student debt, he said NSFAS had completed an assessment of all historic debt claims submitted by the institutions for the years 2017 and 2018, and displayed the historic debt summary on the slides. An audit process had been performed to confirm that all historically disadvantaged individual (HDI) claims were processed against the HDI set rules and criteria, and some Institutions had submitted claims for students who did not meet the criteria for historic debt. The DHET and NSFAS had consulted and strengthened the HDI rules which would be communicated to the institutions in preparation for the 2019 claim process.

Answering on whether there was a plan in place to accommodate the students classified as the ‘missing middle’, he said there was no NSFAS policy or plan regarding the missing middle, as it did not formulate policies.

Giving a progress report on the NSFAS forensic investigations relating to fraudulent activities, and on how much had been spent on the investigations, he said NSFAS had undertaken a number of forensic investigations. Due to it not having an internal forensic capability until January 2020, the following investigations and forensic accounting services had been undertaken by service providers:

• Forensic accountant review of the irregular expenditure disclosures for the 2018/ 2019 annual report;
• A number of investigations with respect to human resources (HR) processes;
• Investigation into the irregular expenditure relating to sBux;
• Investigation which had commenced into other irregular expenditure categories and had since been handed to the newly appointed internal forensic investigators;
• Investigation into unauthorised disclosure of sensitive NSFAS information.

The total spent on those investigations had been R8.5m for the 2018/ 2019 financial year, and due to the complexity and scale of the matters, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had also been asked for their assistance. Approval for them to assist NSFAS was currently with the Presidency.

Regarding the equalisation of stipends of university and TVET students, he said the equalisation of allowances paid to students was a policy matter, and NSFAS implemented policy from the DHET.

Answering on progress with putting effective management and governance systems in place in preparation for the post-administration period, he said the following as initiatives were under way in order embed sustainable improvements to the NSFAS governance and management environment:

• The process for the appointment of the NSFAS executive was underway, and thus far two appointments had been confirmed. The recruitment of the remaining executives continued.
• Two projects had been launched to embed governance and effective management:
  • The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) project – which was a project aimed at obtaining ISO certification for key NSFAS processes, mapping and documenting processes across the entity.
  • Policy renewal – since the inception of administration, NSFAS policies had been revised and renewed in order to continuously improve the overall governance and management of NSFAS.
• The administrator had invested in the recruitment of senior technical skills, enabling deeper analysis and continued improvement in NSFAS service delivery, despite ailing and non-fit-for-purpose systems.
• The governance, risk and compliance unit had been capacitated. An internal audit unit had been established, contributing to deeper internal audit activity and an investment in institutional knowledge. A forensic unit had also been established – a NSFAS first. There were plans to further capacitate this unit, given the demand for its services.
• Risk management processes had also been finalised, with a documented signed off. Enterprise risk framework and operation risk workshops were being run successfully across the entity for the first time.

The Chairperson expressed appreciation for the answers submitted, and said that the presentations should be highly summarised, as the Members had already received the answers in writing.

Council on Higher Education

Prof Themba Mosia, Chairperson: Council on Higher Education (CHE) submitted answers to the Committee in summary.

Answering on the implications of the budget cut amounting to R18 million on the work of the CHE, he said the CHE could not comment much about the 25% difference between the CHE and South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) budget, save to state that the Ministerial statement had promised an injection of R25 million to the CHE baseline budget. The CHE was still anticipating this to be transferred to the CHE account in due course, and the budget presented to the Committee had been the approved one at that stage. Should there be a top-slicing of the allocation for whatever reason, the CHE would have to reprioritise the budget, and the APP targets would be adjusted accordingly, as had been done in the past when there were serious budget shortfalls, and in line with Treasury and/or DHET prescripts, which were normally forthcoming under such circumstances.

Regarding the role of the CHE in advising the Minister on the establishment of a university at Ekurhuleni, he responded that the President had announced in Parliament that a university would be established at Ekurhuleni and that in terms of the Higher Education (HE) Act, the Minister ordinarily formally sought input from the CHE on matters he wished to receive advice on.

A formal request from the Minister about the establishment of the new university, including the programmes to be offered by such university, was anticipated and the CHE would comment on the matter at the appropriate time.

Answering on concerns about the shift from contact learning to multimodal learning and its implication for the quality of higher education and the credibility of qualifications from the 2020 academic year, he submitted that the initiatives arising from the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC), the communication the entity had with the professional bodies and the regulatory agencies, and the work it was doing in support of the Ministerial Task Team, had all contributed to a sectoral response.

The Minister had been quite firm that he did not want conflicting and ad hoc announcements, interventions or initiatives emanating from diverse parts of the sector, and that it was necessary for there to be one voice and a coherent approach at the sectoral and the national level.

The overarching national and sectoral principle guiding the CHE was that “no student should be left behind,” and during and after the COVID-19 pandemic period, the primary responsibility for internal quality assurance pertaining to teaching, learning, and research -- as well as interventions which related to dealing with the disruptive consequences of the Covid-19 disaster -- remained with the institutions themselves.

The CHE held the view that whatever changes were made in terms of the mode of delivery and shifts in terms of assessments, the exit- level outcomes ultimately had to be met and that the entity had no doubts that universities would compromise the standards and competencies required.

Answering on delays with the accreditation of some health sciences programmes at Walter Sisulu University (WSU), he responded that although WSU had submitted a list of replacement programmes to the CHE, that had been done only via the HEQC online system at the end of September 2019, providing an impossibly small window for the CHE to process the applications in time for January 2020.

The CHE had processed the Bachelor of Nursing application through a fast-tracked process, and the programme had not been accredited. The institution still needed to submit the South African Nursing Council (SANC) approval letter and a representation to the CHE to finalise the accreditation process. The due date for this representation was 29 May.

WSU had submitted most of their education programmes only in September 2019, while the last accreditation committee meeting of 2019 was held from 4 – 6 October, so the CHE could not process those programmes in time for offering in January 2020. To assist the institution, the CHE had embarked on a round-robin exercise to fast-track the processing of these late applications.

Answering on whether the CHE had undertaken research on the information communication technology (ICT) capability of universities to offer online learning, he said the answer was “no.”  However, the DHET and Universities South Africa (USAf) had collected relevant data through an extensive survey to establish what the capabilities, resources, infrastructure, reach and needs at each institution were.

Responding on whether university lecturers had been re-skilled to offer online learning programmes, he submitted that online learning had been under way long before the COVID-19 crisis, with varying degrees of preparedness and capacity at the various institutions. Most had learning management systems and related infrastructure, as well as varying degrees of capacity, but the major hurdles remained the affordability and access to devices, and the affordability of data required to access e-learning resources and learning management systems. The physical location of students where there was no network connectivity remained a major concern that institutions were grappling with, within the agreed principle of “no student should be left behind.”

Delivering the progress report on the CHE’s investigation at UNISA, he said following the decision of the HEQC to include the University of South Africa (UNISA) among the public higher education institutions that would be audited during the current financial year, the necessary arrangements were under way. At the current stage, the audit panel was in the process of being nominated and would be briefed, and the process would unfold in line with the standard procedure publicised in the audit manual of the CHE.

On the comment that the CHE should submit the revised accreditation and re-accreditation framework document, Prof Mosia said the quality assurance framework (QAF) would be submitted to the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology (PCHEST) for comments after the process of refinement, which would follow consultation with the higher education sector, and approval of the framework at the governance structures of the CHE.

Answering on the impact of the re-organisation of the 2020 academic year on students, and the possible implications that universities would complete the academic year at different times, he said that all efforts were aimed at ensuring that the academic year would be saved. The determination of the respective institutional calendars was within the autonomy of each institution, but because of funding issues, the DHET was also a role player in this matter. This was why there was a small task team from the CHE, USAf and DHET that would handle all issues that flowed from the COVID-19 crisis.

Regarding the question on irrelevant qualifications in the TVET sector and the articulation of qualifications, he said that although the Portfolio Committee had raised issues around the TVET sector over time, the CHE had been directed by Minister Pandor to focus its responsibilities on the universities and private higher education institutions.

Concluding his submission of answers, Prof Mosia said that the involvement of the CHE was in a forum chaired by the Director-General, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) committee convened by SAQA.

South African Qualifications Authority

Dr Julie Reddy, Acting Chief Executive Officer: South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), answering on the entity’s plans to amend its budget, said it had received an instruction from the DHET to cut its budget by 20%.  It had budgeted for a total income of R167.36 million for the 2020/21 financial year from a R73.737 million (44%) government grant, and R93.623 million (56%) in income generated from services.  The sources of income from services were:

• R 48 million from Foreign Qualifications Evaluation Services;
• R 37 million from the verification of national qualifications;
• R 3,425 million from sundry Income;
• R 3,2 million from professional bodies; and
• R 2 million from interest received.

The Foreign Qualification Evaluation Services income was the income generated from the evaluation of foreign qualifications, and of the clients who had attained foreign qualifications and used the service, some were already in the country and some in foreign countries. The demand for the service had reduced drastically, and SAQA had not received any applications since the lockdown started.

The verification of national qualifications was used by employers for potential employees. The demand had reduced, mainly as a result of many employers having moratoriums on filling vacant positions during this period.

Sundry income represented the income that was received from projects that SAQA managed from time to time, and included income that SAQA had anticipated to receive from conference delegates (international and local) for a conference that SAQA had planned to host. However, the conference had been postponed due to COVID-19.

SAQA recognised non-statutory professional bodies, and charged an annual fee for the recognition service. It was evident that the professional bodies had been unable to continue with their normal activities during the lockdown period, which had resulted in them raising less income because some of their members were not operating fully, making it challenging to pay membership fees.

Iinterest was earned based on the balance invested, and the entity was in a situation where it was continually withdrawing the invested funds to pay salaries and other non-avoidable expenses, and there was not much that was generated from services.

Regarding its response to the DHET and National Treasury instruction she said that SAQA’s salary bill amounted to R 106.977 million (64%), which was not covered by the government grant. SAQA had already had to cut operational costs to pay salaries, and a further cut in the grant would be untenable.

Delivering a progress report on the implementation of the new Addis convention for the recognition of higher education qualifications in other African states, she said 13 African countries, including South Africa, had ratified and deposited their instruments of ratification. The convention came into force on 15 December 2019 and dealt with higher education learner mobility on the African continent.  There was an undertaking to develop an African Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF), and a mapping exercise by the Joint Education Trust (JET) on qualifications of all African countries was under way. She stressed that SAQA was working on its plan to implement the Addis Convention.

Submitting reasons for an increase in the budget for outsourced services of the entity, she said that the budget increase reflected in 2020/21 budget was not from voted funds from the fiscus, but on projected income generated through SAQA’s verification function. It assumed that the verifications function would grow dramatically after the proclamation of the NQF Amendment Act, 2019. In order for SAQA to compete with other verification agencies, it needed to invest in better systems and keep the fees it charged competitive, hence the expenditure was also high.  The delay in the proclamation of the NQF Amendment Act and the Covid-19 lockdown had seriously affected this function, so an adjustment to the income and expenditure budgets had been necessary.

Regarding whether SAQA had the infrastructure to maintain the registers of fraudulent and/or misrepresented qualifications, she said the registers for professional designations, misrepresented qualifications and fraudulent qualifications as per the NQF Amendment Act, No. 12 of 2019 already existed as separate documents that were not linked to the National Learner’s Record Database (NLRD).  SAQA had the IT infrastructure to develop and maintain the registers of fraudulent and misrepresented qualifications and part-qualifications as part of the NLRD. The register for professional designations had already been developed and implemented.

On the question of what was being done regarding the articulation of TVET qualifications with higher education qualifications, she said SAQA had worked extensively on a three-year partnership with the Durban University of Technology, which had dealt with the articulation of TVET and university of technology qualifications. SAQA had researched and documented some good practices and had circulated the reports on the project, which had been sent to the Committee.

The Cabinet’s freezing of manager’s salaries had not affected staff retention and service delivery, but it may in future.

Dr Reddy referred to verification of the qualifications of Mr S’celo Mahlaela, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), and said the request had caught the Acting CEO’s attention when the Portfolio Committee had sent SAQA a reminder. She apologised for that oversight, and assured the Committee that the oversight was a once-off occurrence. SAQA had systems in place to address all queries timeously, and the full response had been sent to the Chairperson on 14 May.

SAQA had two separate units, one dealing with the verification of national qualifications, and the second that dealt with the evaluation of foreign qualifications. It took between two and 20 days to verify national qualifications, depending on whether the records appeared on the NLRD or if SAQA had to contact the individual institutions to verify each record. SAQA usually received requests from employers wanting to verify the national qualifications of potential or current employees.

Dr Reddy said that SAQA currently stored information about foreign qualification evaluation certificates that had been awarded on a foreign qualifications database which was separate from the database containing national qualification achievements, and the verifications team that had worked on the Portfolio Committee’s original request, did not have access to the foreign qualifications database. SAQA wanted to combine both databases when funding became available. It could confirm that the individual in question was in possession of two foreign qualifications and one national qualification, but could not confirm the individual’s professional designations and membership status in the two professional bodies, as this fell outside of SAQA’s mandate.

Delivering a progress report on the digitisation of pre-1992 learner records, she said that to date SAQA had implemented various digitisation projects, using both donor and its own funds. The Tirelo/Bosha project, funded by the Flemish government with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), had resulted in 800 195 learner achievement records from pre-1992 being scanned and indexed (digitised).

In terms of the Act, it was the quality committee’s responsibility to load achievement data on the NLRD, and SAQA was in the process of finalising a regulation dealing with data loading responsibilities and filling in the data gaps on the NLRD. Once this had been finalised, SAQA would proactively advise the Minister to issue the regulation, which it hoped would also prioritise the digitisation and data gap issues.  

Referring to the appointment of contractual staff on the verification projects on a permanent basis, she said verifications staff were appointed on fixed-term contracts because SAQA was not mandated in the NQF Act to perform this function. SAQA had been performing this function on a project basis since 2010 in response to a directive from the Minister, and the DPSA and had been challenged on this by state entities, such as the Western Cape government. The matter had now been addressed in the amendment to the NQF Act and once proclaimed, SAQA would address the issue.

Finally, on whether SAQA provided advice to the Executive Authority when there was a request for advice, she said that SAQA provided both pro-active advice and advice on request, after a careful consideration of matters requiring its attention.

Discussion

Ms J Mananiso (ANC) said the NSFAS administrator should submit the terms of reference for the R490 000 that had been mentioned in the presentation. She asserted that the entity’s APPs were still inconclusive, and asked for more clarity.

The Chairperson interjected, stating that the R490 000 was the amount paid to external service providers to compile the APPs of the entity.

Mr P Keetse (EFF) said that three NSFAS employees had been arrested, while others had resigned, and but the level of crimes they were involved in had not been disclosed in the Auditor General’s findings. He asked for a detailed explanation. 

There were cases were NSFAS students who qualified for funding had submitted their applications many times, and he wanted to know if these students had been told why their applications were rejected.

He suggested there should be consultation with the Minister over the development of centralised online learning systems.

Dr W Boshoff (FF+) said the responses from the NSFAS administrator had shown that he had done much to recover the institution, and that he hoped that those efforts would be long lasting.

He commented that young people were reading less and less, so he wanted the CHE to comment on the fact that an online learning system meant learners would have to read more.

He asked SAQA if the work capacity that was lost by institutions could be recovered by any chance. He requested clarity on who the competitors of SAQA were.

Ms N Mkhatshwa (ANC) commented that there were many concerns that had been raised with regard to the cutting of funds for students who were classified under the category N+2, and said that there should be a reconsideration on the matter, because there were many reasons as to why those students found themselves where they were.

Mr W Letsie (ANC) proposed a joint meeting with the Portfolio Committee on Health to deal with the issues that related to the nursing profession. With regard to the ‘missing middle,’ many families were going to lose their jobs due to the pandemic, and asked if there were enough resources to ensure that aid could be rendered to the students who would now qualify for funding due to parental loss of income. He added that those students were expected to make appeals, since they would now be fitting the criteria stipulated for funding. There were reports of students complaining about the NSFAS portal not updating their information and thus causing their applications to be rejected when they had uploaded the necessary documents. 

He said there was a need to engage with the Minister about funding for SAQA, because they seemed to be struggling from the effects of COVID1-19.

Mr B Nodada (DA) asked the Chairperson when the Auditor General would be reporting to the Committee and briefing it on the APPs of the three entities. NSFAS needed to come back with an APP that was conclusive and not as ambiguous as the one they had currently presented. The Committee needed to know what process was being followed to develop the APP, and who was responsible.

He asked the NSFAS administrator how many TVET students had been paid out during the lockdown period compared to the number of university students, and how many had been left out.

He thanked the CHE for responding on the Walter Sisulu University matter, and asked what their turnaround time with respect to accreditation of courses was, particularly for the nursing and teaching qualifications.

He asked SAQA if there was no national guideline for dealing with the articulation between TVET colleges and universities.

Mr S Nqcobo (IFP) emphasised that there was a problem with the ‘missing middle,’ and it needed to be addressed. SAQA’s salary bill, amounting to 64% of the budget, looked huge -- there should be a salary bill which guided the salary aspect of the budget. How was SAQA welcoming the African Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF)?

The Chairperson said the qualifications of Mr Mahlaela had been verified, and a letter had been sent to the university to apologise for the allegations, which had no basis.

He requested SAQA and CHE to give an articulation between TVETs and Universities. He was worried about the issue around the centralisation of gadgets, as there was money that had been appropriated to the various entities, including NSFAS, but that the money was not being spent on the purpose it had been appropriated for. The matter needed to be followed up on.

He suggested that the entities be allow one minute each for closing remarks, because time had run out. The answers to the new questions should be submitted in writing by the entities.

Closing remarks

Dr Carolissen said that the entity was going to submit an amended APP, and he was taking personal responsibly for that. Some of the questions would be answered by the Minister at a press conference the following day.

Prof Mosia said the question on the centralisation of the online learning system would be a difficult one, given that different institutions used various modes of teaching and learning. With regard to the articulation of TVETs and universities, he said that it was an enormous topic for discussion and suggested that the three entities should come together to formulate the solution. 

Dr Reddy said SAQA noted some comments about its financial situation, and it appreciated the support it got from the Committee. The entity would appreciate feedback on the report it had submitted to the Committee.

The meeting was adjourned.