NSFAS board crisis exposes deeper governance failures

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has raised serious concerns over what appears to be a deepening governance crisis at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), following Higher Education and Training Minister Buti Manamela’s announcement that interim Chairperson Dr Mugwena Maluleke and board member Karabo Mohale had both resigned with immediate effect.  

According to Minister Manamela, these resignations have now reduced the board’s remaining voting members to a level that raises concerns about NSFAS’s ability to lawfully constitute itself and discharge its statutory and fiduciary duties.

For OUTA, this explanation raises far more questions than answers.

Under ordinary governance circumstances, the resignation of two board members from a legally constituted 13-member board should not automatically trigger a governance crisis. The Minister could reasonably have acted swiftly to appoint an interim Chairperson, while the remaining board continued to operate and manage committee leadership adjustments pending new appointments.

The fact that Minister Manamela has now publicly raised concerns over the board’s legal functionality strongly suggests that the governance crisis at NSFAS may run far deeper than these two latest resignations alone.

OUTA’s deeper assessment indicates that the public may not have been fully informed of the true extent of board attrition for many months.

Evidence reviewed by OUTA suggests that at least seven board members have resigned since Minister Manamela’s appointment in July 2025, including former Chairperson Dr Karen Stander, yet several former members allegedly continued appearing on official NSFAS documentation as recently as 23 April 2026.

These individuals reportedly include Dr Marcia Socikwa, Clarinda Simpson, Prashika Mahesh, and Philisiwe Sibiya.

If accurate, this raises serious concerns that NSFAS and the Department of Higher Education may have failed to accurately represent the institution’s true governance status to students, stakeholders, Parliament, and the broader public.

This is not a minor administrative oversight.

The apparent continued publication of resigned board members on official institutional documents could present compliance, legal, and reputational risks, while simultaneously creating a misleading perception of governance stability where instability may already have been severe.

“South Africans deserve full transparency from institutions entrusted with administering over R50 billion in public funds every year,” says Rudie Heyneke, OUTA Senior Project Manager. “If multiple resignations were allowed to accumulate over time without clear public disclosure, while official records continued to create the impression of board stability, then this points to a deeply troubling governance failure.”

Particularly concerning is the reported resignations of Clarinda Simpson, Prashika Mahesh, and Philisiwe Sibiya, all Chartered Accountants whose financial expertise would have been essential in overseeing procurement, budgeting, and fiduciary compliance at NSFAS.

Their departure may have left one of South Africa’s most financially significant public institutions operating with materially weakened financial oversight.

Adding to OUTA’s concerns is NSFAS’s continued failure to maintain transparent and updated public records of all awarded tenders on its website, despite the institution’s significant procurement responsibilities and repeated governance scrutiny.

OUTA is equally concerned that, to date, NSFAS has still not finalised or publicly clarified 2026 student accommodation rates, creating further uncertainty for students, accommodation providers, and stakeholders alike.

These failures extend beyond board instability alone.

When viewed alongside unresolved leadership vacancies, weakened financial oversight, procurement transparency concerns, and delayed operational decision-making, they collectively suggest a broader governance crisis within NSFAS and raise serious questions about governance standards within the Department of Higher Education and Training itself.

This concern is compounded by NSFAS’s prolonged failure to appoint a permanent CEO, ongoing delays in finalising 2026 student accommodation rates, insufficient transparency regarding procurement and tender disclosures, and broader governance weaknesses that continue to undermine public confidence.

Collectively, these failures suggest an institution facing significant governance distress, where governance instability, weak oversight, and delayed intervention increasingly threaten the effective functioning of a critical public entity upon which millions of vulnerable students depend.

OUTA is particularly concerned that this pattern mirrors previous governance failures seen across SETAs and the National Skills Fund, where delayed appointments, reactive governance, and poor transparency have repeatedly undermined institutional credibility under the Department of Higher Education.

“South Africa’s students cannot afford governance paralysis at NSFAS,” Heyneke adds. “NSFAS exists to support vulnerable young people seeking education opportunities, not to become another example of weak governance, delayed accountability, and administrative dysfunction.”

OUTA calls on Minister Buti Manamela to publicly disclose the full timeline of all NSFAS board resignations since July 2025, clarify why multiple critical vacancies were not proactively addressed, explain whether stakeholders were adequately informed of the board’s true governance status, confirm NSFAS’s current lawful governance standing, restore transparent and financially competent board leadership, urgently prioritise stable executive management, and strengthen procurement transparency alongside governance safeguards.

NSFAS plays a critical role in South Africa’s social and economic future.

Allowing governance failures, transparency concerns, and leadership instability to deepen within such a vital institution places both taxpayer resources and student futures at unacceptable risk.

Without urgent corrective action, public trust in NSFAS and broader higher education governance structures will continue to erode.​

Supporting Information

A soundclip from OUTA Senior Project Manager, Rudie Heyneke is available here.