UNDER FIRE: MANAMELA DISSOLVES NSFAS BOARD AS PRESSURE MOUNTS, INSTALLS MATHEBULA IN CRISIS MOVE
- Mpho Dube
- 35 minutes ago
- 2 min read
By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief
The Azanian | Truth. Fearless. Unfiltered.
JOHANNESBURG — 04 May 2026
Under mounting scrutiny and with NSFAS in freefall, Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela has dissolved the entire board and placed the scheme under administration, appointing Professor Hlengani Mathebula to take over late Sunday.
This is not reform. This is triage.
Manamela acted after a year of boardroom chaos left NSFAS leaderless, toxic, and on the brink. Three senior board members quit in five months. Each one cited the same thing: a “highly toxic” environment and governance collapse.
Board chairperson Dr Karen Stander resigned in November 2025. Acting chair Dr Mugwena Maluleke walked out this month. Another board member followed. The resignations gutted the board and left the minister exposed.
With Parliament, students, and the public demanding answers, Manamela pulled the emergency brake.
“I was not satisfied that the ordinary governance arrangements were capable of adequately stabilising the institution within the urgency and seriousness of the challenges confronting NSFAS,” he said.
For months, NSFAS has been under the microscope. Allowance delays. Financial red flags. Leadership wars. The scheme that funds over a million students was becoming a national liability.
Manamela’s ministry faced direct pressure to intervene before another academic year implodes. Dissolving the board shifts blame and buys time, but it also confirms the scale of dysfunction on his watch.
As administrator, he takes full control of operations and strategy until a new board is appointed. His job is to stop the bleeding and restore credibility to an institution students depend on to survive.
Manamela insists student allowances will continue uninterrupted. That promise is now Mathebula’s first test.
This is the second time in recent years NSFAS has been placed under administration. The last fix did not hold. The pressure now is not just on NSFAS. It is on Manamela to prove this intervention is not another failed bandage.
The board is gone. The scrutiny remains.
AZANIAFROCOMEDIA – The Catalyst of Impact
This is a developing story. The Azanian is tracking Mathebula’s first directives and whether allowance payments hold.
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