Swazi Observer

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STUDY LOANS: LETTERS OF DEMAND OUT JUNE 1

By Lungelo Nkambule | 2018-05-24

Beneficiaries of the government of Eswatini study loans who have not yet made repayment arrangements will be served with letters of demand come June 1.

Project Manager Khanya Magagula revealed that at the beginning of June 1, the study loans consortium will be sending out letters of demand to beneficiaries who have failed to come forward to make repayment arrangements.

“The consortium has already identified beneficiaries who are failing to come to make the appropriate arrangements and come June 1, we will serve them with the necessary legal documents,” he said. Magagula said the consortium has to this end, done all possible means to have Emaswati who benefitted from the initiative voluntarily come forward but some have chosen to ignore all the pleas.

He explained that the letters of demand will be giving the defiant beneficiaries a specific time frame to present themselves before the consortium to make repayment arrangements before their cases are escalated to the government’s attorney for legal action.

“The letters of demand are like a final warning shot to the beneficiaries who have been failing for various reasons to come present themselves and make repayment arrangements. Individuals who have not come through should utilise the period between now and May 31, to avoid legal steps being taken against them. This is a serious offence and beneficiaries should understand it,” he said.

He added that before the consortium decided on the next step of litigation, beneficiaries have been approached at their places of work, where with the help of employers they were notified about their obligation of repaying the study loans, but still some could not be bothered.

“It is only fair to those who adhered to our calls that we proceed with the litigation stage.

“After all, the consortium has been to all the country’s regional towns to try to get closer to the people. We have also had three deadlines still trying to get beneficiaries to come and make repayment arrangement and some have not bothered themselves about doing the right thing,” he said.

The project manager highlighted that the consortium is faced with challenges where certain beneficiaries have come up with all sorts of theories about the project and are purposely refusing to cooperate.

He said these some beneficiaries say they will only start making the repayments once they are convinced that the funds go straight to funding students who are pursuing higher education.

“This is a wrong way of doing things because this means these beneficiaries can afford to repay the study loans but they just don’t want to. The fact of matter is that the government gave you a study loan and you must honour the agreement and repay the loan so that other students may be afforded the same opportunity as you and receive higher education as you did,” he said.

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