Ernest Khosa takes leave of absence as NSFAS chair after audio leak

National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) board chairperson Ernest Khosa on Wednesday announced he would take a month-long leave of absence to enable the board to deal with allegations against him contained in audio recordings distributed by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).

An independent legal firm will be appointed to look into the veracity of the allegations, the NSFAS board said in a statement.

Last week, a series of leaked recordings released by Outa alleged that service providers awarded multimillion-rand tenders by NSFAS to administer direct payments to students paid kickbacks to Khosa, higher education minister Blade Nzimande, and the SA Communist Party.

Khosa refutes the veracity of the allegations and his decision to voluntarily take leave of absence for a month is not an admission of guilt, the board said.

“The chairperson reiterated to the board that he had never received any financial gratification for his personal use or facilitated any for the minister or the SACP,” the board said.

Khosa’s decision was “honourable, brave and responsible”, it said.

The legal firm, soon to be announced by the board, is expected to submit its findings within 30 days of its appointment.

The labour court this week declared as lawful and valid the recent termination of CEO Andile Nongogo’s contract after he was implicated in irregular conduct over the appointment of direct payment service providers.

The board said it would move ahead with appointing a new CEO to “further strengthen supply chain management systems ... and continue with its legal process towards the termination of contracts of direct payment service providers”.

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