{"id":860205,"date":"2026-05-12T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=860205"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:01:30","slug":"big-trouble-for-south-africans-who-make-less-than-r600000-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/860205\/big-trouble-for-south-africans-who-make-less-than-r600000-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Big problem for South Africans who make less than R600,000 a year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Households earning between R350,000 and R600,000 a year can\u2019t afford tertiary education for their children in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to policy gaps in the country\u2019s funding mechanisms, these households are being referred to as the \u201cmissing middle\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the feedback from Ryan Passmore, a Durban-based fintech founder of ZenFund Connect, who believes this is a systemic problem in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with BizNews<\/a>, he pointed to the mounting pressure on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) as evidence of the scale of the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Passmore, NSFAS received more than 900,000 first-time applications in 2026, of which 700,000 were approved while over 100,000 were rejected outright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, a further 500,000 continuing students were assessed, but only around 100,000 received approval. However, he argued that the most overlooked group is the missing middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passmore explained that the missing middle are households earning between R350,000 and R600,000 per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey do not qualify for NASFAS and state funding, and they cannot afford the R19,000 a month that the University of Pretoria says it costs to put a child through an undergraduate degree,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Passmore, many students in this income bracket simply never apply for university funding because they have no viable options available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passmore argued that the problem is not necessarily a lack of capital or trust in the funding system, but rather outdated policy thresholds that have failed to keep pace with inflation and rising living costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNASFAS funds households below R350,000 a year, and above that line, you are expected to self-fund. There\u2019s no middle path at the moment in a country where R350,000 a year does not buy you what it bought you a decade ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing a solution for South Africa’s missing middle <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He said families in this income category are often overlooked because they appear financially stable on paper, but still struggle to afford tertiary education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re too well off to qualify for sympathy and too poor to qualify for relief,\u201d Passmore said. He described these households as the backbone of South Africa\u2019s working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include South African nurses, teachers, civil servants, and small business owners, whose children represent talent the country cannot afford to lose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a problem that needs to be solved holistically, end to end. It cannot be solved just in isolation around student funding,\u201d Passmore said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passmore said he has built ZenFund Connect over the years to address this challenge through what he described as an \u201cend-to-end solution\u201d for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform offers bursary opportunities, student loans, accredited accommodation, and eventually career placement services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passmore explained that students would enter the platform after matric, apply for bursaries or loans, and then access verified student accommodation providers before eventually transitioning into graduate employment opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the platform\u2019s focus is ensuring accommodation providers meet Department of Higher Education and Training standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passmore said landlords would need to pass a \u201cstringent auditing process\u201d before listing properties on the platform, to improve transparency and ensure students are placed in accredited housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, Passmore said the success of ZenFund Connect would ultimately be measured by how many students secure jobs after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFunding alone doesn\u2019t solve unemployment. Funding plus housing, plus credit building, plus career placement does.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A South African fintech founder has warned that there is a systemic problem facing households earning between R350,000 and R600,000 a year in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":858457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7397,24107,853,25394],"class_list":["post-860205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-education","tag-national-student-financial-aid-scheme-nsfas","tag-south-africa","tag-zenfund-connect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860216,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860205\/revisions\/860216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}