However, it has now launched yet another investigation into the legitimacy of its payment scheme. This comes after tens of thousands of so-called beneficiaries failed to provide proof that they are enrolled anywhere or have valid bank accounts, reports BusinessLive.

NSFAS GHOST ACCOUNTS

Potential NSFAS ghost accounts are a scandal new Minister of Higher Education Dr. Nobuhle Pamela Nkabane could do without right now. Like so many government-run grant schemes, the NSFAS has moved from one scandal to another over the years. It was placed under administration between 2018 and 2020. And corruption allegations in 2023 forced the immediate resignation of chairperson Ernest Khosa.

Furthermore, former Minister Blade Nzimande placed it under administration again back in April. This followed after it failed to terminate contracts with four companies that had been awarded tenders dubiously, reports The Citizen.

FUNNELLING MONIES OUT

The emergence of these NSFAS ghost accounts came to light when approved beneficiaries were asked to provide banking and enrolment details. This is standard procedure so the aid scheme can pay funds directly to students, and not via the allegedly corrupt intermediaries. However, 6% (more than 11 000 NSFAS ghost accounts) of the people contacted did not respond in kind. Therefore raising the suspicion that these people were not students at all and merely NSFAS ghost accounts used to funnel money.

Central to the discovery of these NSFAS ghost accounts is the new process of direct payments to students. By circumnavigating the intermediaries, each transaction costs R1 per student, versus a deplorable R22 per transaction via the third party. The four companies whose contracts have been terminated are: Coinvest, eZaga, Noracco and Tenet Technology. It’s understood that each contract is valued at R47 million.

MALADMINISTRATION AND FRAUD

The National Prosecuting Authorities’ Special Investigations Unit, otherwise known as The Hawks, is already investigating alleged corruption, maladministration and mismanagement of the NSFAS. There are allegedly 420 students who did not qualify for support from NSFAS but had collectively received more than R112 million in student aid. Likewise, it’s been fighting to get money back from universities and colleges that received over-payments by the NSFAS.

ARE YOU OR DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE STRUGGLING WITH THE NSFAS?

Let us know by clicking on the comment tab below or by emailing info@thesouthafrican.com. You can also send a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211. Don’t forget to follow @TheSAnews on X and The South African on Facebook for the latest social media updates.

Enactus is an international youth leadership event which was held only online this year due to the pandemic.

The third-year analytical chemistry student at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) spoke in the same session as LinkedIn senior customer success manager Shawn Mealy, who is based in the United States (US).

Ndlovu’s speech aimed to help students, graduates and business owners navigate their way around the LinkedIn application, showing them how to build their brand.

Your LinkedIn  profile

Ndlovu said it is important to choose an appropriate profile picture. Also add a relevant professional description of yourself, as well as your experience, achievements and any voluntary work.

Recommendations

You can ask people who have worked with you to give you recommendations on LinkedIn. This builds credibility and validates your skills. 

Relationships 

As a business you can build different types of relationships on LinkedIn, two of which are B2B and B2C:

• B2B are Business-to-business relationships where businesses sell to other businesses; and 
• B2C are Business-to-consumer relationships where businesses sell directly to the consumer. 

Build your network

“If you are a student or graduate, LinkedIn is for you. There are more than 30 million companies on LinkedIn, 20 million jobs and 90 000 schools,” said Ndlovu. 

He recommended building your network through your posts. To expand your network, you can add human resource (HR) managers, directors and CEOs. You also have the option of sending a direct message (DM) to someone in your network. 

Ndlovu believes that as there are not an overwhelming number of posts on LinkedIn, your posts have a good shot at doing well.

You could post text, with or without an image, where you show your interests or passion, and you could share other posts or create video content. 

Video content 

Video content is something Ndlovu is passionate about and his Enactus speech focused on this. He said he leans towards video content more because:

• Video content gets more than three times the attention of an image; 
• Video content has a personal approach and builds the “know, like and trust” factor which allows your network to get to know you, interact with your posts and build trust in you; 
• LinkedIn pushes video content; and
• Through videos you get to see emotions, expressions, gestures and so on. 

Tags on LinkedIn

The tags you use on LinkedIn posts are particularly important and play a significant role in getting you noticed. 

“What I do when posting content is I use hashtags, such as #MondayMotivation, so someone who is searching for Monday Motivation will find my video. It is all about getting discovered,” said Ndlovu.

“Around the world, journalists are working tirelessly to inform, educate and entertain their audiences. To support their work during the pandemic, we’ve expanded our global training efforts to help them grow as reporters.”

Google News Initiative

Google News Initiative — What you need to know

GNI Live training sessions

Google News Initiative announced this week that it would be launching GNI Live, which consists of “a number of free week-long training programs on YouTube to help journalists find, verify, and tell news stories online”.

Furthermore, the training sessions are interactive and easily accessible to all as it will be hosted on YouTube Live. Thanks to this format, trainers will be able to respond to questions and engage with reporters and students directly.

“The chat element has also fostered a sense of community among the reporters logging on. From verification, to environmental journalism and data visualisation, GNI Live covers the full range of tools Google offers.”

Learn: How to ‘Google It’ for news with Advanced Search

This training session will go live at 15:00 today, Friday 31 July 2020.

The initiative is new to the South African market, however, the GNI team already hosted training sessions in German, Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Japanese and Korean.

In addition, the Google News Initiative worked with First Draft News and the Walkley Foundation in Australia and New Zealand “to launch live training sessions for journalists, including one in partnership with Grow with Google”.

“We have also organised a GNI training series to support Southeast Asian news organisations during the ongoing pandemic”.

Moreover, the classes are offered in English, Mandarin Chinese and Malay, and featured classes include:

• Fact-Checking for COVID-19 Misinformation
• Digital Tools for More Efficient Reporting

“The work of journalists around the world is more important than ever, and we are proud to support their mission to deliver quality news to their communities.”

In addition, due to the pandemic, many job-seekers have to stay at home for longer than expected and now fall into the category of “unemployed graduates”.

However, instead of letting anxiety and depression set in, there are various things you can do to become more competitive in your industry while you’re at home.

Try one of these pointers to get closer to that dream job.

Digital portfolio

A digital portfolio is a multimedia portfolio created to showcase work that simply cannot be shown on paper. You can buy or use a free a domain for a digital portfolio, but generally the free digital portfolios work well enough.

One example is the free blogging platform WordPress. You can add your work to a blog post or several blog posts, or you can create an AboutMe account. AboutMe allows you to create a free page.

Instagram

Social media marketing has been a game-changer for many businesses. If you are starting from scratch on Instagram, set up a business account. If you have an existing personal account, change it into a business account and specify your niche.

You can then post your work and, if you use the right hashtags, you’ll be more easily recognised.

Also, try to add posts to your stories as this is more effective than you think. You can pin these as a story highlight, which then also works as a short digital portfolio for visitors to look through.

Facebook

Depending on how you use it, Facebook may help increase your chances of securing a job or it may decrease it. On Facebook it is important to remove or hide any inappropriate posts that you would not want your potential employer to see.

Human resources departments often look at potential candidates’ social media profiles to get an idea of who they are. Therefore, be aware of what your profile looks like from someone else’s point of view.

Twitter

Professionals use Twitter more than you think! If you do not already have one, set up a Twitter account and follow all the companies you would like to work for.

Turn post notifications on and you will be notified when they post job opportunities.

Hashtags are also a huge deal on Twitter, so search hashtags like #Graduatejobs, #careers and other similar topics according to your industry. Also use Twitter to keep up with industry related news, as you need to keep up to date.

LinkedIn

Setting up a LinkedIn account is also key to get the right kind of people to notice you. In addition, you can apply for jobs through LinkedIn.

Be sure to fill in all your educational details, skills and work experience to better your chances.

Online courses

Many people believe once you have your degree that is all it takes. However, don’t  just step back as there is so much more you can do without committing to another degree.

There are various online short courses that you may be able to take to learn more about your field.

Certain public universities in South Africa offer short online courses that are certified, and these generally cost between R15 000 and R20 000.

If you do not have that kind of money on hand you can always look at free online courses, such as edX.

Investing in your academic life will never really go to waste!

If this COVID-19 era has taught us anything, it would be that we always need more money. The lockdown period found many households feeling the financial strain. People who would have been working, and earning a living, were forced to stay home. Many only earned their wages for the work they produced.

This has also put a strain on university students, who have part-time jobs that aren’t considered “essential”, such as barmen and promoters.

Many have been forced to look at other avenues for generating an income but you may not need to cancel your financial goals for the year just yet.

As long as you have a good internet connection, and an intelligent approach, you should be able to look at ways to make money online. Here’s the tea:

1. Become an affiliate marketer

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is earning commission by selling another person or company’s product. This can be done through you, where the marketer shares your unique “invite code” or via a link to prospective buyers.

ClickBank and MaxBounty are popular platforms for affiliate marketing. The key in making money as an affiliate is finding offers that are membership based, and then ensuring that you get paid each month.

2. Write and sell an e-book

So you’re in the process of writing, or have just finished writing, a novel. Why not share it with the world, and perhaps create an income while at it?

Firstly you need to format your document so that it is a PDF document. You would also have more options if you convert the PDF to MOBI or EPUB formats.

Secondly, you will need to create an eye-catching cover. This can be done for free on a web-based design app like Canva.

Lastly, you will need to choose the platform where you will sell your book. You can expect the platform to deduct a percentage from your sales.

3. Monetise your social media platforms

Do you have the luxury of having many followers on your social media accounts? You might be able to look at being an influencer, and turn those followers into money.

The Humanz app is a platform that connects brands with influencers. Some of the promos are paid for in cash, while some are product reviews, such as reviewing a skin care line. You read the promo brief, pitch your content and when you’re selected, you can start securing the bag.

You don’t have to be a celebrity for this. Companies also want to work with micro-influencers as they are real, everyday people, whose audiences they relate with.

Depending on your niche, you can start making money from having as little as 1 000 followers on Instagram.

4. Sell print-on-demand T-shirts

Before you scroll down, no, you are not going to be physically purchasing and printing out T-shirts. You can start this with zero rand!

There are companies online that will allow you to design your own T-shirts, then print and distribute these to your customers, for you, at no cost to you.

For example, if it costs R50 for the company to make and ship out the T-shirt and you decide to sell it for R150, they will take the R50 and you keep the profit.