Employees of the National Student Fund Aid Scheme (NSFAS) have opened a case of theft against a former board member for stealing laptops earmarked for under-resourced schools in the Eastern Cape.
The board member, who was leading the scheme’s delegation, kept ten laptops instead of delivering them to the already identified schools during the Eastern Cape Donation Drive in March 2026.
NSFAS said the 30 laptops were earmarked for distribution to six high schools, with each receiving five laptops for communal use.
“It is shocking that, particularly a board member of an organisation designed to alleviate hardships from economically deprived communities, would be responsible for such an act,” NSFAS Administrator, Professor Hlengani Mathebula, said on Thursday.
Mathebula added that he was pleased that NSFAS’s employees have decided to pursue justice on behalf of the voiceless learners, noting that “criminality can only thrive when witnesses turn a blind eye to such matters.”
Mathebula also emphasised that the scheme must only be associated with a certain calibre of leaders and employees.
“This act by our colleagues is exemplary. It testifies to the fact that we are turning the corner as an organisation, as employees are reclaiming their organisation from the grubby hands of those who have been manipulating it for their own self-enrichment while our children suffered the indignity wrought on by poverty.
“Children from impoverished backgrounds need all the help they can get from all of us. It is therefore appalling to learn that someone used his position of privilege, being a board member, to steal from the same needy children. It does not get worse than that,” Mathebula said.
Mathebula expressed his full confidence in the South African Police Service to speedily secure justice for the intended beneficiaries. – SAnews.gov.za
