AFTER THE BELL: The unbelievable mess at NSFAS should cost Buti Manamela his job

Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela, with a nose for the incompetent and the immoral, has sunk the National Student Financial Aid Scheme into chaos. Has the President been paying any attention to this?

If it’s true that your life stage is defined by the age of your children, I’m at the stage where I keep wondering what young people can do after school.

My wonderful teenagers are at an age when that question is becoming a lot more urgent.

I remember that time for me and give thanks that the teenagers have more direction than their father did.

But as they say about life, the All Blacks and teenagers, nothing is certain.

It seems obvious to me that it’s much harder to get into something after school than it was for my generation. And while I was lucky enough to be privileged, it still didn’t seem that hard to get into a university.

It looks almost impossible to me now sometimes, when you consider the huge sacrifices that people make just to get some studying done.

As a society one of the most important things we do is get young people from poorer communities into higher education.

I sometimes think hope alone is holding our society together, as communities weep and celebrate as one of their own does well in matric or is accepted to a university in the big smoke.

I also thank the good Lord I did not have to study, as a late-stage-teenager, with all of that hope resting on my shoulders. It must have been an immense burden for so many young people.

So, I never quite understand how we mess up the funding of higher education so badly.

Because, no matter which way you look at it, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a mess.

Yesterday, News24’s Prega Govender reported that some of our universities have not received the money due to them. As a result, they may not be able to pay their staff.

More than R10-billion is at stake here. It’s an incredible amount. Money that should be put to good use.