South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF) will be celebrating its’ 40th Anniversary this April, as the largest Muslim bursary fund in the country they have been granting bursaries since inception 40 years.
SANZAF spokesperson Hoosen Essof said that the organisations national Bursary Budget was over R12million and the JHB Budget was R5million. However over 100 candidates had to be declined as an additional R5million would have been required for them.
SANZAF sponsored students have been performing well and in 2013 these students achieved over 90% pass rate at University. In JHB there were 32 graduates for 2013 and over 130 graduates on the Alumni in JHB.
Hoosen said that requests from 170 new applicants were received for 2014 of which 65 have been accepted and 90 students from 2013 will be sponsored again this year.
Candidates are interviewed by panels comprising of professionals form the respective fields ie. Law students were interviewed by a panel of lawyers etc. They have 69 professionals on 22 panels.
Applications for 2014 have closed and 2015 applications open on 1 December 2014 and will close on 10 January 2015, SANZAF is seeking donations for their bursary programme , these donations are tax deductible, any person, business or organisation wishing to donate can contact SANZAF National Bursary Fund on (011) 834 2544 or email jhb2@sanzaf.org.za
