Eviction warning for South African students

Many students who rely on financial aid face evictions as their landlords struggle with non-payment from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

On 7 April, NSFAS issued an important circular, reminding landlords that the next accommodation payment is scheduled to be processed on 17 April 2025.

“NSFAS would like to reiterate the call to landlords to refrain from evicting students and to collaborate with the scheme in submitting their accommodation claims according to the guidelines provided,” NSFAS stated.

“This cooperation is crucial to ensuring that students, often in vulnerable situations, maintain stable living conditions while pursuing their studies.”

These payment delays have been ongoing for weeks. On 25 March, NSFAS issued a statement explaining that delays in data submission ultimately impacted NSFAS’s verification process and the communicated payment dates.

“The verification process is inherently complex, involving multiple checks to ensure compliance with NSFAS and government regulations.”

“During the verification process, NSFAS has identified ghost students, who are neither funded by NSFAS nor enrolled in any public university or college.”

“This discovery underscores the importance of the verification process, which is a crucial step for NSFAS in processing payments to accommodation providers.”

In response, NSFAS promised to investigate all accommodation providers who have submitted incorrect information in an attempt to unlawfully benefit from funds intended for legitimate NSFAS-funded students.

“While NSFAS is committed to ensuring that funds are disbursed promptly, it is equally important to maintain a rigorous verification process to guarantee that all claims are legitimate and in accordance with established policies.”

NSFAS stated that they were actively working to streamline payment processes, reviewing their claims verification and payment procedures to identify opportunities for improvement, and exploring strategies to enhance communication with accommodation providers.

In this statement, NSFAS said it adhered to 4 April 2025 as the payment date. The next day, NSFAS released a statement saying that they had made “significant improvements to streamline the payment process”.

As a result, they moved up the payment date from 4 April to 31 March.

“This adjustment reflects our commitment to provide timely and efficient support to students who rely on NSFAS funding for their accommodation needs,” they said.

However, the 31 March deadline came and went without payments, as did the 4 April deadline. Currently, NSFAS is promising that payments will be made on 17 April.

Students face evictions

These delays have made it difficult for students who have been threatened with evictions and landlords who are also struggling to keep providing services without payment.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, NSFAS spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi explained that the main issue lies with compliance, specifically what landlords, students, and NSFAS each need to do to process payments.

He said that NSFAS has engaged with landlords and is working to process payments to ensure accommodation providers are remunerated on 17 April 2025.

He stressed that NSFAS has to ensure that they process information and make payments, and landlords also need to play their part to move the process along so that the welfare of students can be guaranteed.

According to Mnisi, these delays are not entirely due to failures on the part of NSFAS.

He explained that the payment of student accommodation involves several players. It starts with a contract between the student and landlord, which must be given to our service provider to pass on to NSFAS for verification.

If that process is delayed, payments are delayed. That’s what NSFAS has observed, and it has now made a special dispensation to make irregular payments – outside the normal schedule – to address these backlogs.

The delays, he explained, are often due to landlords accepting students without signing official agreements.

When payment time comes, NSFAS cannot pay without documentation. Some landlords rush to fill rooms without following procedures, only to later realise they haven’t been paid for months.

NSFAS is now working more closely with landlords to ensure that they understand the process, “because, at the end of the day, it affects landlords’ businesses, it affects students the most.”

Mnisi said NSFAS has actively engaged with several landlords in KwaZulu-Natal, particularly in Durban, but these efforts will be extended across all provinces.