Cape Town - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) did a swoop on Northlink College and recovered R33.4m as part of a wide-ranging investigation into corruption at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
In 2017, the Technical and Vocational education and Training (TVET) institution received R33.4m from NSFAS, meant for poor students, but Northlink invested it without authorisation instead.
College officials did not allocate the money to deserving students.
The college – with its headquarters in Bellville and campuses in Parow and Goodwood – may have to fork out more than R33.4m as the SIU is also calculating interest from the transgression, the SIU said.
In March, Northlink students from the Protea Campus disrupted classes and demanded that they be paid their NSFAS allowances.
On August 26, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation for the SIU to add Northlink to its ongoing investigations into the misuse of NSFAS funds from 2016 to August this year.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the recovery of R33 489 884.37 from the college was a part of a bigger investigation into the NSFAS.
“The college informed the SIU that it received (more than) R33 million from NSFAS that was not allocated to students between 2017 and 2021 and had invested it without authorisation,” he said.
Kganyago said college officials had conceded to the SIU that they were aware that the funds should have been returned to the NSFAS, but the college failed to do that, and made investments. He said they agreed to return the money.
Northlink spokesperson Ranaldo van Rooy said: “The college declines to comment at this stage and we (are) to seek further information directly from the SIU.”
Kganyago said: “The SIU is calculating interest earned from the investment from the commencement date, and such interest would have to be paid into the SIU trust account.”
The SIU’s two-pronged investigation probed the management of NSFAS’s finances as well as the allocation of loans, bursaries and any other funding to students.
Kganyago said, the SIU was investigating unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred by NSFAS, improper conduct by NSFAS employees and service providers and maladministration from 2016 until this year.
It was also probing unlawful or improper conduct by employees or officials of the NSFAS or the service providers in question, their employees or any other person or entity.
Kganyago said the SIU has the powers to institute civil action in the high courts or the SIU Special Tribunal after it finds wrongdoing.
He said the SIU would refer evidence of criminal conduct that it uncovers to the National Prosecuting Authority for prosecution.