For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines: SIU returns R1.7bn to NSFAS purse; IFP supports Zulu King’s call to rename KwaZulu-Natal; And, Rwanda seeks arbitration in Britain's cancelled asylum deal

SIU returns R1.7bn to NSFAS purse

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme has received an injection of R1.7-billion, from unallocated funds recovered by the Special Investigating Unit and which will be returned to the purse for higher education students.

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago explained that the money came from R2-billion that the SIU had so far received from universities, technical and vocational education and training colleges and unqualified former students.

The funds in question were unallocated from 2016 to 2021 and represent financial resources that were designated for students who qualified for funding but later changed institutions or deregistered.

In contributing to the R2-billion recovery, the SIU collected over R126-million from 1 055 parents and unqualified NSFAS beneficiaries who signed Acknowledgments of Debt and agreed to repay the money over time.

IFP supports Zulu King’s call to rename KwaZulu-Natal

The Inkatha Freedom Party in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature today expressed its full support for Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini’s suggestion that the KwaZulu-Natal province be renamed KwaZulu.

The party said kaZwelithini’s proposal was “timely and historically justified”.

The colonial name of Natal and the KwaZulu homeland were merged in South Africa’s democratic transition in 1994.

Last week, kaZwelithini announced that he would start a campaign to drop ‘Natal’ from the province’s name and insisted that it must be known as KwaZulu.

The IFP said it felt “vindicated” by kaZwelithini’s proposition, and said the name change would acknowledge the Zulu Kingdom and its historical, cultural, and political significance.

IFP national chairperson and Chief Whip of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature Blessed Gwala said the current name remained a “compromise that failed to fully reflect this reality” and added that during the Convention for a Democratic South Africa negotiations in the early 1990s, there was intense debate over the renaming of provinces, particularly Natal.

And, Rwanda seeks arbitration in Britain's cancelled asylum deal

Rwanda has filed an arbitration case against Britain over a cancelled asylum deal that Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped in 2024, the government of the East African nation said.

Under the scheme, signed before Starmer took office, Britain agreed to pay Rwanda to take in migrants who had arrived illegally in Britain. It only sent four people voluntarily to Rwanda, as the plan was stalled by legal challenges.

Rwanda has submitted a notice to the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, arguing Britain had breached the financial arrangements of the "migration partnership", its government said in a statement.

It added that Britain had asked it in 2024 to forgo two payments of 50-million pounds due in April 2025 and April 2026 in anticipation of the formal termination of the treaty underlying the deal.

Rwanda said it was prepared to agree, provided the treaty was terminated and new financial terms were negotiated and agreed.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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