It’s easy to see blatant corruption when a cop demands “cool drink money” on the side of the road or, as it seemingly is in the Tembisa Hospital looting, where around R2 billion of taxpayer money was diverted in a systematic milking of tenders. When that happens, we rightly cry out at injustice and shout that those responsible should be brought to book, locked behind bars and forced to repay the stolen money. But what if many of those supposedly upright citizens protesting about criminality were no better themselves and were also stealing money meant to make life better for those at the bottom of our wealth and social pyramid?
That is the distasteful reality in South Africa today – that tens of thousands of families have been stealing billions intended to help poor and deserving students pay for a decent university education. Effectively, that is stealing degrees from these young people – and, in turn, stealing the better future that they may have been able to achieve had they graduated. According to the Special Investigating Unit, more than 40 000 applications for loans or bursaries made to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) should never have been granted, because those applying came from a place where the household income was more than the R350 000 annual threshold which qualifies for assistance.
Deserving students are being turned away and those being funded are finding their support cut… because it’s going to the child of some fatcats. On top of that, the Nsfas administration is incompetent and corrupt, leading to even more money going to waste. Clearly, the scheme as it is, is not working, other than as a way from the ANC – as its initiator – to gain votes.
Most of all, however, we need to think about the thieves in our midst.
Summary from source