Dear Minister Blade Nzimande

I am writing this letter to raise an issue or complaint i am still experiencing with NSFAS. I do not want to address this as an individual rather as a mouthpiece for some of my peers experiencing the same emotional challenges.

After your press address on 14 April 2024 to dissolve the board it was a relief to know that our issues will be addressed concisely but we are only just discovering layers we did not even knew existed due to us being unpaid our allowances.

Early this year the NSFAS system projected errors in our statuses rejecting us wrongfully, on follow up on this statuses it was a struggle to get through to NSFAS call Centre until the option was to re-apply because we wanted to be secured for the academic year 2024 and that we were also frustrated for not receiving any feedback from NSFAS for all its challenges concerning our applications being wrongfully rejected. The onus is been with NSFAS to correct the errors made to wrongfully reject applications.

We have embarked on all avenues to find a solution without success due to Call Centre unreachable, social platforms not addressing our queries but failed to get the help needed. We are now compelled to cope academically amidst all this stressful events and this is not easy seeking solutions from our institutions of higher learning because they also have no answers, NSFAS Call Centre is always congested and no one is addressing our problems.

I humbly wish to request the Minister to intervene yet again because he has ordered that all these issues be resolved especially for deserving merits such as wrongfully rejected applications, I plead with the Minister to ensure that there is accountability from NSFAS and our issue is addressed and corrected so that we can get our allowances.

My personal details are as follows:
Name: Tsatsa Thembeka
Institution: Central University of Technology in Welkom
Student number: 20032285

Your urgent response will be appreciated to ease all these loud voices in my head, Depression is killing us but communication eases us.

Sincerely,
TM Tsatsa
0785790516