NSFAS's eZaga app under siege

A cellphone application that was meant to make it easier for students to access study funds has caused headaches to some who have lost thousands of rand. 

Elise Manganye, a student from a college in Soweto, said she lost her R21,000 on April 29 – four days after it was deposited by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) into her eZaga App account. 

The money was meant to cover her accommodation and books.   

eZaga is a digital banking service that partnered with NSFAS to assist beneficiaries (students) to transact on it without the use of the middleman such as universities. They access their money by making a withdrawal request through the app and after receiving an SMS with a pin code they can then withdraw the money from any ATM.

Manganye said R21,000 was deposited into her account on April 25 before it suddenly disappeared from the app. 

She said though the app is easier to use, she still experiences poor service when contacting the scheme about her problem. “I didn't use any of the funds. No one else knows of my details and yet four days later it disappeared. I was going to use the money for accommodation because I stay far from school and now because of what has happened I can't attend classes,” said Manganye.

“I have called NSFAS and they told me they can’t do anything because they don’t know how I lost the money.”

There have been several complaints about the app's functionality and suspicious withdrawals from students' accounts. Some students have even taken their frustrations to social media. 

ActionSA's Students Chapter at the University of Free State last week issued a statement rejecting the implementation of the app. 

“eZaga has been introduced to our campuses early this month and it has already proven to be problematic in its rollout and implementation. The majority of students have not been onboarded or verified by the system which will inevitably cause delays in the disbursement of their funds.  While some are waiting anxiously waiting to receive SMSes to allow them to register their NSFAS mastercard, others are noticing unknown withdrawals from their accounts,” it said.

NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana said he had visited the NSFAS communication centre last week and could confirm that all the emails received and calls that were made up until June 5 have been addressed.

“All the emails and calls have been updated too and sometimes the problem is that the enquirer doesn’t want to hear the answer that is given, and so they would say we don’t respond. And sometimes when we do respond through SMS and email, they don’t see the responses and then we would tell them that the reason they haven’t been responded to or the issue wasn’t fixed was because they were told via SMS or email to bring supporting documents and that is why their application would not be experiencing any movement,” Skosana said.

He said Manganye’s case was troubling to hear about because of the amount of money that went missing. He said the matter would be dealt with accordingly.

“The account could have been hacked and it’s surprising, especially if the student didn’t share her details. I have spoken to cyber security about her case and it’s still an ongoing investigation of what happened. I am still waiting for a report,” said Skosana.