Written by Matthew Neal; reader contribution
On 27 August, University of Cape Town students marched to NSFAS and Parliament over an accommodation funding cap they say is leaving students in debt.
The following day, Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela acknowledged before Parliament that the cap had not succeeded in curbing high student-housing prices. He said it had become a “price signal” around which some accommodation providers set their rents.
NSFAS CEO Waseem Carrim acknowledged another consequence. Students are carrying the shortfall, sometimes through debt and sometimes by using money intended for food and personal care to cover accommodation.
There is something worth noticing here.
The cost never disappeared.
Who carries what is left?
NSFAS introduced the accommodation cap in 2023 as accommodation costs escalated and government sought to control what was being charged to the public purse.
Public money is finite. Stewardship matters.
Now follow the cost to the end. A room costs a certain amount. NSFAS places a limit on what it will contribute. When the room costs more than that limit, the difference remains.
It has to land somewhere. A cap does not remove a cost. It decides who must carry it.
Increasingly, that person appears to be the student. That made me think about something Jesus said.
Have we counted the cost?
In Luke 14:28 Jesus asks:
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?”
Jesus is speaking about the cost of discipleship. Yet look at the picture He gives us.
A person intends to build something. He begins. Somewhere between the foundation and the finished tower, he discovers that he has not accounted for what completion will require.
That leaves me with a question for the NSFAS debate: Have we counted the cost of what we have promised?
A young South African receives access to higher education. Tuition is funded. Books are provided. They arrive ready to study. Then comes the accommodation invoice.
If the amount required to live close enough to receive that education exceeds the funding available, the student must find the difference.
The tower has already been started.
Count all of it
Parliament’s higher education committee chair, Tebogo Letsie, has warned that removing the cap could give accommodation providers a blank cheque.
That cost must be counted too.
Count the taxpayer. Count the university. Count the accommodation provider. Investigate what housing genuinely costs in Cape Town and elsewhere. Ask why prices are rising. Deal with exploitation where it exists.
Then count the student. Students often have the least ability to move the cost somewhere else.
Government has already recommended that the current system be reconsidered and accommodation costing investigated. That seems a sensible place to begin.
The person behind the number
There is a question here for the Church too. University students live in our communities. Some worship in our churches. Others walk past them every day.
When one cannot make rent, Christian love can become wonderfully ordinary: a meal, a lift, temporary accommodation, mentorship or help through a difficult month.
We should do those things. And we should remain curious about how the student ended up carrying the shortfall in the first place.
Somewhere between an acceptance letter, an accommodation invoice and a government funding cap stands a young South African trying to build a future.
The numbers matter. Stewardship matters. The cost must be counted. All of it.
Because eventually every unpaid cost lands somewhere.
The question is: Who have we asked to carry it?
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Date published: 02/10/2026
Feature image: Sourced from Politi
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