Investigation into NSFAS payment service provider tender still ongoing: public protector

The public protector’s office says it is still investigating the awarding of a contract to service providers by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to make direct payments to students in universities and technical vocational education and training colleges.

The Stellenbosch University students’ representative council (SRC) wrote to the public protector asking it to look into the contract awarded to eZaga, Coinvest Africa, Tenet Technology and Norraco Corporation.

Speaking to TimesLIVE, the public protector's office said investigations were ongoing.

“The public protector has been engaging with the complainant in the matter and there is progress. This is an ongoing investigation,” it said.

“Accordingly, the Public Protector Act prohibits the disclosure, by any person, of the contents of any document or record of any evidence given before the public protector or deputy public protector during an investigation.”

An investigation report compiled by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) found the four companies are not registered financial service providers and are relatively new firms with “very little proof of experience as fintech companies”.

TENET South Africa distanced itself from the matter, saying it was taking Tenet Technology to court over the use of its name.

TENET South Africa filed a notice of motion in the Western Cape High Court against Tenet Technology (Pty) Ltd and its related service providers for the unauthorised use of its name and trademarks.

“It seems NSFAS's walk-in centre in Cape Town is as confused about its own suppliers as students. They are directing students to our Wynberg offices for assistance. While we have a lot of sympathy for those students whose time, effort and money has been wasted getting to our offices, we still cannot assist them.

“We've also seen a massive increase in the number of calls we receive from students and have had to implement measures on our phone and email systems to reduce the impact these have on our staff and our regular business. We apologise to our legitimate clients for the inconvenience this may cause,” it said.

TENET South Africa said Tenet Technology (Pty) Ltd and an IT company named Coralite (Pty) Ltd, which owns the domain hosting Tenet Technology's website, gave notice of their intention to oppose its court application.

“We reached an interim out-of-court settlement with Tenet Technology (Pty) Ltd and Coralite (Pty) Ltd, with the main application now deferred on a semi-urgent basis until February 2024,” it said.