NSFAS has been placed under administration three times in eight years — 2018, 2024 and 2026. The Public Protector's systemic investigation, released on 18 August 2026, set out why.
Adopting the SIU's findings, the report records that over 40,000 students at 76 universities and TVET colleges were improperly funded between 2018 and 2021 at an estimated cost of R5.1 billion, of which more than R2 billion has since been recovered, while a further R1.7 billion sat unused or misallocated. At the same time about 40,000 eligible students went unfunded despite a R3 billion missing-middle allocation for 2024–27. The Close-Out Project begun in 2021 to reconcile NSFAS accounts with institutions remains incomplete, leaving graduates' qualifications withheld over disputed balances.
The Public Protector directed the NSFAS board to produce a digital-modernisation plan within 30 days and reform its debt-recovery policy within 90 days, directed vice-chancellors on reconciliation, and ordered the Minister of Higher Education, Buti Manamela, to submit a remedial action plan by 1 November 2026. The record sits under the existing NSFAS fraud file so that the R5.1 billion is not double-counted against the R12 billion already recorded there.