PETER BRUCE: What Cyril Ramaphosa can learn from Sizwe Nxasana’s NSFAS exit
EXTRACT:
Nxasana walking away from helping out the state is a very bad sign. He had created a model of how the private sector can help the government do things together.
Not only did he not draw board fees due to him for the three years he spent at the scheme, he attracted help from the private banking sector, from all the banks, none of which cost the government a cent. The private sector deployees were all paid by their original employers.
But you can only do so much.
If you’re in any doubt as to what the resignation of Sizwe Nxasana as nonexecutive chair of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) means, check out his CV. He was one of the first African chartered accountants in SA. He’s a founding member of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the fifth-largest auditor in SA. He became CEO of Telkom in 1998 and for 10 years was CEO of the FirstRand banking group. He is a man of unrivalled integrity. When he left banking, the government asked him to run NSFAS. He accepted. Nxasana is passionate about education. His family foundation funds university students, and builds and operates private nursery, primary and high schools. His wife, Judy Dlamini, has just become chancellor of Wits University. So we’re talking about people at the very summit of their lives here, and Nxasana walking away from helping out the state is a very bad sign. He had created a model of how the private sector can help the government do things together. Not only did he not draw boa...
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