Student Representative Council (SRC) Update on NSFAS Appeals Process

Student Representative Council (SRC) Update on NSFAS Appeals Process

In todays latest NSFAS News – The SRC writes this statement in response to the lamentations that the student body has conveyed around the 2023 NSFAS Appeals process, which has truly proven tedious and detrimental to not only academic progress but also to the overall wellbeing of those who are subject to this incompetent and unnecessary delay. Also Read: NSFAS News on SMU Student and Allowances

This SRC shares the sentiments of the affected students as we are aware that we are now entering block 2 of the academic calendar, yet all Wits NSFAS appellants have not received their outcomes.

The strain of this non-responsiveness on both the University and the SRC cannot be stressed enough as measures, such as Hardship accommodation which are generally in place to aid self-funded students, have to be strenuously utilised to accommodate NSFAS appellants who are now being left destitute as private accommodation providers have begun issuing eviction letters to these students as they do not have confirmation of funding.

The impediments presented by the appeals crisis do not end at lack of accommodation, moreover they extend to the entirety of student wellbeing as NSFAS appellants are deprived of basic essential needs due to the lack of living and book allowances. The emotional toll this presents is an insult to the fundamental right to dignity and cannot stand. To this regard, SRC’s around the country have been relentlessly raising the detrimental effects of the tedious appeals process on student life in general, but this has been to no avail. Also Read: NSFAS News on NSFAS Appeal Release

We, as your elected SRC, can not bare to see the continuance of this injustice. We remain evermore determined to see to it that the dignity and wellbeing of the student populace is maintained. To this effect, we are inviting all students affected by this atrocity to convene at the SRC Boardroom, on Monday 17 April 2023 @15H30-171-100. We make this plea in order to compile information on the number of affected students and how to best go forward regarding this matter.

Currently, the SRC is in ongoing engagements with Dunwell Properties to arrange temporary accommodation for affected NSFAS appellants until we resolve this pressing issue. In addition, this SRC aims to have a comprehensive and detailed plan of action, in collaboration with both the Regional and Provisional levels of the South African Students Congress of Gauteng in mitigating this crisis.

Furthermore, to ensure the hasty resolution of this matter, we, as the Wits SRC, are calling on NSFAS to send an official to Wits University with an aim to establishing an appeals committee that is inclusive of Wits staff as well as the SRC. We are of the strong belief that this will ensure a smooth and impediment-free appeals process as the process will now be handled at an institutional level and will have student input.

The atrocities that have taken place on the student populace, not only here at Wits but nationally, no longer require the centralisation of the appeals process by NSFAS, more especially they no longer require the NSFAS Appeals Tribunal as they have clearly demonstrated an unjustifiable incompetence and an utter disregard for the wellbeing of the student body. We as the Wits SRC are therefore calling for the dissolving of the NSFAS Appeals Tribunal and subsequently the decentralisation of the NSFAS Appeals process!

Let us have a say and accessibility to the processes that decide our futures. This SRC is saying these injustices can no longer stand, let the NSFAS Appeals process come to us!