Student debts cannot be left for students to deal with.
Saus fiscal aid president Nhlonipho Nxumalo said it was a major issue that universities had the tendency of dealing pupil debts to bank and debt collectors.
As South African scholars continue to battle study debts, ANC treasurer-general Dr Gwen Ramokgopa has called on the private sector, government and civil society organisations to establish a dialogue in relieving pupil debts and fiscal rejection.
Ramokgopa handed a keynote address at a breakfast dialogue hosted by the Progression Business Forum and the South African Union of scholars under the theme “ Breaking walls of fiscal fences in institutions of advanced literacy ”.
‘ public interest ’
Speaking to The Citizen, Ramokgopa said pupil debt and fiscal rejection were a matter of public interest and it was important to find ways to help scholars from the pressures of having to deal with fiscal problems every time.
“ We need to deal with this in terms of access to advanced education, continuing education or acquiring qualifications. This has come an issue we can not leave to scholars and the department of advanced education, ” she said.
“ Let’s pull together cohesively as mates to support the youthful people so that they don’t have to protest every time. ”
Ramokgopa said a special fund was needed which had tight governance around it, so that it can boost the National Student Financial Aid Scheme( Nsfas). She said Nsfas was only suitable to help scholars who met a certain criteria.
“ This would be what we call the more vulnerable scholars from poor families. So to stretch that and to meet the requirements of other scholars, we’d need to have a public result, ” she said.
“ There will be numerous people who would want to contribute at an individual position. As individualities, without a coordinated trouble, the impact is lower than if there could be a public result. ”
With regard to the issue of advanced education institutions transferring pupil debts to banks, Ramokgopa said this brought immense pressure on individualities and scholars. She said this move was further for those scholars who weren’t covered by Nsfas.
“ According to my understanding, it’s an acknowledgment of debt where the pupil acknowledges the debt and there were processes the advanced education institution has put in place to look at how to deal with pupil debts, ” she said.
“ It’s a fairly new issue. preliminarily, scholars would have to first pay the debt before acquiring their results, but now it was different. You would have to deal with it outside university as your own particular debt. ”
Ramokgopa said this was an area to be flagged and it was pivotal to find ways to resolve it. She said youthful people don’t start on a “ zero sum base but with a huge debt ”.
“ It’s a major concern. People end up starting employment on a negative and with this high affectation rate and cost of living, it becomes a huge battle, ” she said.
Dealing pupil debts to bank collectors
Saus fiscal aid president Nhlonipho Nxumalo said it was a major issue that universities had the tendency of dealing pupil debts to bank and debt collectors.
“ How do institutions anticipate these people to go and pay back these debts if they can not go it? ” she asked.
“ Their qualifications are withheld so they aren’t exploitable and can not contend in the job request. It’s really a delicate situation the scholars are in. ”
Amusement PBF principal superintendent Humaira Choonara- Mooketsi said it was essential civil society and other organisations came together to bandy matters of fiscal fences and gender equity.
“ We need to find results and move forward, ” she said.