The loan recovery office is a big office and we did not have an officer dealing specifically with recovering loans from the graduates. We are working hard in setting up that office, Radipotsane said.
This came after some graduates received DSPW letters requiring them to state the arrangements they were making to repay their loans by July 1, 2006. Many graduates, who have not started repaying, panicked and told Monitor that they do not know how to go about making the payment arrangements. You just have to wait for them to write you a letter. If you go there you will be sent from one officer to the next and this has discouraged many graduates, stated one of the affected graduates.
Another student complained that while he has paid for about three and a half years after he started working in 1993, he stopped paying when he changed employment. I was left with about four months to complete paying. I managed to make those arrangements because I knew someone who was working there by then, but now that he has changed jobs, it is difficult for someone to just go there and be helped, he said.
While students on government sponsorship are completing their studies, it is becoming more difficult for the department to follow up all the graduates. Most of the students who have already received the letters studied in local institutions.
