Higher education deputy minister's no-show sees plug pulled on key student funding meeting in Parliament

A key meeting at Parliament’s public accounts committee (Scopa) about the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and the National Skills Fund was stopped after an absence by Deputy Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela – with committee members frustrated over this meeting cancellation.

A 25 strong delegation from the Department of Higher Education and Training had travelled to parliament to attend the  meeting. 

“We can’t speak to the body without the head,” said MP Veronica Mente-Nkuna (EFF) on Tuesday during a meeting of Parliament’s public accounts watchdog after the absence of Manamela left the committee no choice but to adjourn the meeting. 

The committee was due to hear from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and the National Skills Fund over their performance and investigations. 

The National Skills Fund – a fund meant to focus on the education and training of leaders and post-school education made headlines in November 2022 when R5-billion “could not be properly accounted for over two financial years”. 

Read in Daily Maverick: The National Skills Fund, the missing R5bn and Blade Nzimande’s request for confidentiality

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme – the fund meant to provide bursaries and loans to underprivileged students to attend higher education institutions – has consistently made headlines for its service challenges including late disbursement of fees, backlog in the appeals process and the entity being under administration. 

Read in Daily Maverick: NSFAS battles backlogs, staff and tech woes as MPs criticise R2m rent for swish Cape Town offices

Tuesday’s meeting was the first with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts – Parliament’s public accounts watchdog, and the Department of Higher Education and Training. 

After committee chair Songezo Zibi asked the 25-strong department delegation to introduce themselves, he said Manamela would not be present at the meeting. 

Manamela had been assigned to attend the meeting as Higher Education Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane was part of the South African delegation of a state visit to China. 

Zibi said that while he was on his way to the committee meeting, he received a call that Manamela would be in Johannesburg speaking at an event and would therefore miss the first meeting between the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the department and its entities. 

Zibi said the absence of the deputy minister created a “difficult problem in our political system”. He said that while he acknowledged the efforts of those officials who had to board early flights and “I also recognise that others have to find somebody to drop off their kids at school, ultimately it is the elected officials one way or another who must account”. 

Read in Daily Maverick: GNU offers new opportunities for accountability — Scopa chair Songezo Zibi

Therefore, he did not want to continue with the meeting. He then turned to his fellow committee members for their views. 

Questions over delegation size

When committee member  Farhat Essack (DA) questioned the size of the delegation – about 25 strong – he said “that’s what gives me lots and lots of food for thought… I mean, 25 individuals, 25 vehicles, 25 flights”. He agreed with the suggestion to adjourn the meeting. 

“Is the deputy minister trying to avoid accountability? We (also) have so many acting individuals here and it is something we also need to question, and I am disappointed that I had received these committee reports and spent the weekend reading only to come here and the deputy minister is elsewhere,” said Essack.

When Mente-Nkuna agreed to the adjournment and made the remark about not talking to the body without the head, she also remarked that the absence of a political head was a “blatant disregard of Parliament”. 

Mente-Nkuna – a member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts during the previous Parliament – then added: “This is the start of the year 31 of democracy… If we don’t do things differently, then we must just close shop because nothing’s changed.” 

Another member, Mazwikayise Blose (EFF), was highly disappointed and said that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme was a personal matter to him because he was part of the generation that benefited from the scheme. He agreed to the meeting being adjourned.  

“As we sit here now, there is a backlog of over 90,000 appeals, and this means there are 90,000 students who qualify but their issues are not resolved. We needed the deputy minister, there are 25 people here but we are told that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme is understaffed. This is not an issue of staff, it is an issue of leadership,” said Blose.

George Atkinson (DA) said the committee needed to send a “strong message”. He wanted the committee to send a public statement about the wastage of public funds for the delegation that attended – and for people’s time that was wasted. 

Zibi then also told the delegation that he knew it was not their fault – he did not want them to be held responsible for the actions of a political principal who did not attend. 

At the end of the meeting, Zibi said he would write to Deputy President Paul Mashatile about Manamela’s absence before a parliamentary committee. Mashatile is the leader of government business, and according to Parliament he is responsible, among other things, for “ensuring that Cabinet members attend to their parliamentary responsibilities”. Zibi said he would write to Mashatile to express “strong views” about Manamela’s choice to speak at another event rather than attend a parliamentary meeting.

In response to a query from Daily Maverick after the meeting had been adjourned, Manamela's spokesperson Mandla Tshabalala said the deputy minister was unable to make it due to a prior commitment in Johannesburg. "An apology was submitted to SCOPA yesterday (02 September 2024). Deputy Minister Buti Manamela holds parliament in high regard, and has, in the past led the delegation of the department to SCOPA on the National Skills Fund, and other matters."

Manemela would be attending the portfolio committee on Wednesday as well as as reply to Oral Questions in the National Assembly plenary in the afternoon.

The meeting was adjourned for a new date. DM