South Africa: NSFAS Says Student Debt 'Not Its Fault' Despite Housing Cap and Rising Rent

What the report says

South Africa’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme is under renewed criticism over its housing funding rules, after reporting in Daily Maverick said students are facing evictions, growing debt and academic exclusion as universities, student leaders and Parliament dispute the policy. The dispute centres on NSFAS’s accommodation cap, which many institutions and students say no longer matches real rental and utility costs, especially in metropolitan areas.

According to the report, NSFAS previously covered actual housing costs for eligible students, but introduced a national cap in 2023 and later revised it for 2025, with a higher ceiling for metro non-catered accommodation and a lower limit for non-metro students. The article says students must pay any amount above those fixed thresholds, which has created shortfalls for some university housing budgets and shifted more costs onto students.

The story places the issue in Johannesburg and across South African campuses, with the tension most acute at urban universities where rent and service charges have risen faster than the capped allowances. The report argues that what has often been described as a funding freeze is also a policy problem tied to the accommodation cap itself. The wider significance is that housing finance is now affecting whether students can remain enrolled and continue their studies.