The recent incident of a young woman who received millions of rand from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is an unfortunate occurrence mainly because it's a question of one innocent soul falling victim to the rot in the administration of our public institutions. Her utilising the funds deposited into her account is wrong and indefensible; however, we should not be side-tracked from putting the blame for this debacle where it belongs: the officials working for the service provider charged with the responsibility to distribute the funds.
The rot in the administration of our public institutions is so rife that it has reached intolerable levels and is finding space to exist even in institutions meant to assist the poor, such as NSFAS. Our state institutions are choked by high levels of corruption to the point of rendering them ineffective. This status quo has led to a failure in service delivery by some institutions and that hurts our people.
...