THE Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) is gunning for Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Blade Nzimande and National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) board chairman, Ernest Khosa.
This after corruption allegations at Nsfas emerged, placing the two in the danger zone.
In recently leaked voice recordings by a whistleblower and an accompanying report by Outa, it was revealed how service providers allegedly paid millions of rands in kickbacks to Nzimande and Khosa, as well as at least R1 million to the South African Communist Party (SACP), where Nzimande is the national chairman.
While Nzimande has rubbished the allegations, claiming he is not a thief and further hinting that he was considering taking legal action against Outa, the organisation is also not giving in without a fight.
Standing on the allegations of corruption against the minister, Outa vowed to take on any legal action brought onto them.
“We note that Minister Nzimande has indicated possible legal action. We will defend any legal action taken against us in this regard as we take our work seriously and do not disseminate reports and statements that we cannot substantiate,” said Wayne Duvenage, Outa CEO.
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Rudie Heyneke, Outa head of investigations, emphasised that Outa had never claimed that Nzimande paid funds from Nsfas to the SACP.
“Our report clearly states that Mr A (Ntumba) said the following: ‘I gave him a million Rands for the communist party. Just imagine. For the conference. When there was nothing. I donated with the very same company that created T-shirts last year together with the bags’,” he said.
Heyneke said it seems that Nzimande is deliberately skirting around the issues raised by Outa's report and the claims made by Ntumba in the recordings.
Meanwhile, education activist Hendrick Makaneta called on the Nsfas board to focus on disbursing funds and avoid corruption allegations against its chairman and higher education minister.
The scheme announced that at least 20 000 students are still waiting for their 2023 allowances, leaving many to resume 2024 with uncertainty.
Makaneta suggests instead of being derailed by "unfounded corruption allegations" the board should be more proactive by sourcing funding from external sources and expanding the scheme to accommodate the growing number of students in higher education.
"The scheme should prioritise critical skills that generate returns to the economy and collaborate with the Department of Labour and the Department of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation to identify and safeguard these skills with limited resources," he said.
