The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Naledi Pandor announced the appointment of Dr Randall Carollissen as the Administrator for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) on Friday.
Dr Carollissen is currently a Group Executive at the South African Revenue Service and also serves on as the Chairman of the Council at the University of the Witwatersrand.
READ:NSFAS appears before parliamentary committee
The scheme has been embroiled in various difficulties, even before the resignation of Sizwe Nxasana - with the most recent problem being that they admitted in Parliament that it has not yet finalised all payments for 2017 and that funding for 2018 was also lagging behind.
The minister spoke to Xolani Gwala on #AfternoonDrive and says the administrator's task is to ensure the closing out of 2017/18 funding applications and funding gets to students.
Applications are processed, funds owed to institutions are paid to them etc. Then the second big one is the data integration challenges ensuring system compatibility and of cause the human resource question within the institution.
— Naledi Pandor, The Minister of Higher Education and Training
Speaking to John Maytham, Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training Belinda Bozzoli says the appointment is excellent.
Dr Carollissen is competent, enormously efficient and I think it is a beautiful opportunity.
— Belinda Bozzoli, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training
However, it is also a bit of a hospital pass and it is not going to be easy.
— Belinda Bozzoli, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training
Listen below to Pandor's interview:
Listen below to the full interview:
This article first appeared on CapeTalk : DHET appoints a new NSFAS administrator