South Africa’s higher education institutions are scrambling to plug widening cracks as their US funding lifeline is pulled.
Universities are being forced into survival mode, drafting contingency plans, forging emergency alliances and bracing for a future in which donor dependence may no longer be an option.
The funding cuts, announced by US President Donald Trump earlier this year, mean the loss of many millions of dollars in research grants. This affects not only research projects, but staff salaries and stipends for postgraduate and postdoctoral fellows.
Wits University spokesperson Shirona Patel said 18 USAid/Pepfar (President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief) projects with a total annual value of more than R230m had been terminated.
“Sadly, over 530 staff were retrenched at the end of March. Five CDC-funded [Centres for Disease Control] projects with a total annual value of over R600m will terminate at the end of September and will affect over 1,100 staff.”
She said the university, along with others, had asked the National Treasury — via Universities South Africa (Usaf) and the department of higher education & training — for R1.8bn to fill the gap.
“This is the total replacement cost of all current grants over the next three-four years,” Patel said.
Wits is renowned for producing high-impact journals. Priorities include climate change, inequality, the rise of AI, pandemics and non-communicable diseases, governance and society and the future of work and the economy.
The university said its academics had published 4,332 items recorded in the Scopus index, which monitors publications accredited by the department of higher education, in 2023.
At the University of Cape Town (UCT), 178 US-funded projects have been hit.
In a statement, Prof Jeff Murugan, acting deputy vice-chancellor of research and internationalisation, said that since February, UCT had received stop-work orders that had halted 22 active projects valued at R172m.
“A further 93 multiyear projects have not received annual renewal notices (R265m). Without intervention, UCT stands to lose over R437m in research funding in the next 12 months, and R1.67bn over the period 2025—2027 if all currently contracted, active US federal-funded awards are terminated,” said Murugan.
He said UCT had taken immediate steps to respond to and mitigate the funding cuts. One avenue it was pursuing was to seek financial help from the EU.
Prof Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya, deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Johannesburg, said the institution had lost R14m in support.
“We are redefining our collaborations to ensure sustainability ... [and diversifying] partnerships and approaches across regions and continents in areas of mutual interest, strengthening collaborations in areas where there are gaps,” said Phaswana-Mafuya.
Martin Viljoen, spokesperson for Stellenbosch University, said the university was deeply concerned.
“As part of our responsibility to ensure financial sustainability and the long-term viability of our academic and research mission, SU has made every effort to mitigate the impact of these developments,” said Viljoen.
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