LEARNING CURVEBALL: EFF to march on higher education department as pressure mounts on Minister Manamela

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will march to the Higher Education and Training ministry in Pretoria on Friday, 18 September, demanding the resignation of Minister Buti Manamela. EFF MP Sihle Lonzi cited Manamela’s “mess-up” at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) as the catalyst for the demonstration.

The march comes after the Gauteng High Court ordered Manamela to reinstate seven NSFAS board members dismissed during his appointment of suspended administrator Hlengani Mathebula. The court flagged procedural flaws in Manamela’s actions and labelled Mathebula’s conduct as “bizarre”.

Before Mathebula’s appointment, the board had recommended Waseem Carrim as CEO, a process the board says stalled amid “political interference” from Manamela. After losing the high court case, Manamela met with the board and appointed advocate Richardt Tlou Ramashia as interim chairperson, with Carrim reinstated as acting CEO, “to provide NSFAS with stable governance”, said Manamela on 11 September.

For Lonzi, the reversal doesn’t undo the damage.

“A lot of the issues that students are experiencing – defunding, student accommodation, the middleman schemes, the evictions – he likes to say he’s not the minister of NSFAS, but the reality is that generally a lot of the problems in higher education are centred around NSFAS. So I think what became a massive trigger was how he handled the entire situation at NSFAS, so he must go,” he said.

Daily Maverick has reported that public funds were splashed out on hotel stays, with double bookings that suggest fruitless expenditure. In addition, four advisers to Mathebula were paid close to R500,000 without the approval of the National Treasury. Mathebula and Manamela were grilled after claiming they did not need Treasury’s approval following advice from Manamela’s department. 

The EFF has an ongoing legal fight with Manamela that is now widening, according to Lonzi. It stems from a bruising session in Parliament on 26 November 2025, when MPs challenged the legality and transparency of Manamela’s reappointment of Seta (South African Sector Education and Training Authorities) CEOs, arguing he pushed through the five-year terms under pressure and without due process.

“Our lawyers advised us that we must do a joinder, because initially the respondents were only the CEO and the minister, so now the boards, the interim board chairpersons who would have been chairing those meetings, also form part of the court case,” said Lonzi. 

“Something that could have started in Parliament, we’re now taking it to the streets, just to show [Manamela] that everywhere he goes, he’s not going to find peace until all these issues are resolved.”

Department responds

The Department of Higher Education and Training spokesperson, Matshepo Seedat, said the right to protest, petition government and criticise political office-bearers is part of democracy.

“The department will receive the memorandum and consider the issues raised in it,” she said. “The minister’s focus remains on the work for which he is accountable: stabilising NSFAS, strengthening governance across the sector, ensuring that findings of wrongdoing are acted upon, improving the functioning of our institutions and ensuring that students and the public receive the services to which they are entitled. Those responsibilities will continue before, during and after the march.”

Seedat noted ongoing efforts to restore governance at NSFAS and various Setas, with the National Skills Authority reviewing operations at the Insurance Seta, the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Seta, and the Education, Training and Development Practices Seta to implement key recommendations.

Emphasising accountability alongside the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) financial recoveries from institutions and private firms, Seedat added: “The recovery of public money is important, but recovery alone is not consequence management.

“Where investigations establish wrongdoing, there must be appropriate consequences. Depending on the findings, these may include civil recovery processes, disciplinary action, referrals for possible criminal prosecution ... and measures against companies implicated in misconduct.”

Comment from MPs

Daily Maverick spoke with MPs about Manamela’s measures to restore stability to the higher education sector. Dr Delmaine Christians of the DA observed that while Manamela inherited a deeply troubled system and had engaged extensively with Parliament, ongoing instability persists.

“The decision to dissolve the NSFAS board and appoint an administrator was itself challenged, while Parliament was told that operational failures, unresolved appeals, questionable payments and serious governance problems remained within the scheme.

“The Seta situation is equally concerning. The minister presented his interventions as an attempt to stabilise the sector, yet we are now confronted with an Auditor-General finding that appointments at 15 Setas were irregular, including failures relating to mandatory vetting, qualification verification and criminal-record checks,” said Christians. 

These findings follow a Sunday Times report that governance protocols were bypassed during the appointment process, leaving candidates unvetted and unverified. Christians stressed that Manamela must better align the curricula of universities, TVET colleges, and CET colleges with the practical skill requirements of the economy.

Echoing these concerns, the MK party’s Mnqobi Msezane criticised the ongoing instability and lack of action plans for NSFAS and the Setas.

Msezane slammed the minister for failing to address the ongoing crisis at NSFAS, pointing out that key reports requested by the portfolio committee more than a month ago – following a meeting with the former administrator – have still not been submitted.

With the EFF's court case widening and cross-party frustration mounting in the portfolio committee, Manamela heads into the coming weeks facing pressure from multiple fronts: the courtroom, Parliament, and now the street. DM