16/04/2026
STATEMENT BY THE PAN AFRICANIST STUDENT MOVEMENT OF AZANIA (PASMA) CONDEMNING THE RECURRING AND UNJUST DEFUNDING OF STUDENTS BY NSFAS
The Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA) unequivocally condemns the ongoing and recurring defunding of students by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) after the academic year has already commenced.
This practice is liberal in character, counter-revolutionary in consequence, and fundamentally anti-poor in its impact.
Every academic year, students register, attend lectures, secure accommodation, purchase learning materials, and commit themselves to their studies under the legitimate expectation that confirmed NSFAS funding guarantees continuity. Yet, weeks or months into the academic programme, students are abruptly defunded without warning, without transparent explanation, and without procedural justice.
This is not administration.
This is institutional violence against poor students.
To defund a student after the academic year has begun is to deliberately push that student into crisis, hunger, homelessness, debt, academic exclusion, and psychological distress. It reproduces the historical exclusion of the African child from higher education and reinforces structural inequality under the guise of bureaucratic compliance.
PASMA rejects this practice in the strongest possible terms.
NSFAS was established to advance access to education for the poor and working class. When it withdraws funding mid-semester, it abandons that mandate and transforms itself from an instrument of liberation into an instrument of exclusion.
PASMA therefore demands:
1. An immediate national explanation from NSFAS outlining why it considers it acceptable to defund students after the academic year has already started.
2. The immediate reinstatement of funding for all students defunded during the academic year pending proper review processes.
3. A moratorium on mid-year defunding, ensuring that no student loses funding once academic registration has been confirmed.
4. Full transparency regarding verification processes, criteria used for defunding, and timelines followed by NSFAS.
5. Protection of all affected students from eviction, allowance suspension, or academic exclusion while funding disputes remain unresolved.
Let it be clear: poor students are not statistical errors to be corrected mid-semester. They are human beings pursuing education as a pathway to dignity and liberation.
PASMA refuses to accept a system where the children of the poor are admitted in January only to be expelled by bureaucracy in March.
Education must not be conditional upon administrative instability.
PASMA calls upon students across campuses to remain vigilant and organized as we confront policies and practices that reproduce inequality and undermine the right to education.
Izwe Lethu! iAfrika!
Aluta Continua!
Issued by:
Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA)
Nelson Mandela University
