{"id":867487,"date":"2026-08-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867487"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:10:51","slug":"r53-billion-government-fund-being-flushed-down-the-drain-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/867487\/r53-billion-government-fund-being-flushed-down-the-drain-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"R53 billion government fund being flushed down the drain in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African students are increasingly falling into online gambling, and are using NSFAS funds to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) currently supports over 1.2 million people pursuing tertiary studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fund faces continuous criticism from students for failing to adequately support South Africans as the cost of living rises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2026, the fund opted to keep its living allowances unchanged from the previous year, sparking outrage among many people who rely on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The living allowances currently pay R15,000 per annum for students who do not live in a catered residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those living in catered residences receive a R2,900 personal care allowance for necessities not provided by their accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation (SARGF) said these funds are increasingly being used for online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foundation said it has received numerous reports from students seeking gambling addiction counselling that NSFAS funds were used to support their habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the growing trend of misusing NSFAS funds is \u201cdirectly undermining public investment in higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the use of public funds is also exposing students to worrisome debt levels and a high amount of anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInternal intake records indicate that a growing number of students seeking counselling admit to diverting their NSFAS living stipends and book allowances to online sports betting,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online betting is a growing concern in South Africa, and young people are being heavily impacted by this new form of gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2026 financial year, roughly 3,500 people received treatment for gambling addictions from the SARGF, and 2,670 of these were between 18 and 35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARGF said student gambling addictions are moving from a betting problem into a public health crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Struggles at NSFAS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The misuse of NSFAS funds comes as the organisation struggles to support the growing number of citizens who rely on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students reliant on the funding scheme have said payments to residences often go unpaid for months, creating concerns about accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funding backlogs follow years of financial mismanagement and administrative issues within the government fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2018 and 2021, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found that approximately R5 billion had been spent irregularly by NSFAS to over 40,000 ineligible students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fund was also placed under administration in 2024, following an investigation into procurement irregularities and mismanagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was due to student payments being made directly, rather than through traditional university financial systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funds were paid directly through several fintech companies, which charged excessive transaction fees to students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The direct system also led to technical glitches, leaving many people reliant on the scheme without funds for food or transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The procurement process for contracting these fintech companies was eventually found to be irregular and was confirmed by an independent investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The procurement irregularities led to the NSFAS CEO, Andile Nongogo, being fired from his position and the board of directors being dissolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the controversies, many students were not paid by the group, as it struggled to fund its current number of beneficiaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last decade, the number of students reliant on NSFAS has grown exponentially, roughly doubling since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This number is expected to continue rising, placing increased pressure on the fund to accommodate qualifying South Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NSFAS received an increased budget in the 2026\/27 financial year, reaching 53.4 billion, roughly R2 billion more than the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increase was made to help the fund support the growing number of South Africans from low-income backgrounds who want to pursue further education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shows how vital the government scheme is for many South Africans, raising further concerns about the current issue of online gambling using NSFAS funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African students are increasingly falling into online gambling, and are using government funds to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":851795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2086739592242237911","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2172004903619909","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18111551701785847","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25925,10700,1913,25924],"class_list":["post-867487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-andile-nongogo","tag-nsfas","tag-online-gambling","tag-south-african-responsible-gambling-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867487","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867487"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867725,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867487\/revisions\/867725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}