At least four South African universities have more foreign professors than black, Indian and coloured academics combined.

That finding, tabled before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, has reignited a fierce debate about whether the country’s internationalisation policy is building local capacity – or quietly displacing the South Africans it was designed to protect.

Committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie raised the figures directly, noting that at the University of Cape Town, 39.3% of professors are foreign nationals while only 22% are a combined total of black, Indian and coloured academics, against 39.7% who are white.

The same pattern appears at the University of Pretoria, the University of the Free State, and the University of Venda.

“This is not xenophobia,” he said. “This is us saying government 20 years ago introduced a fund to close the gap. Are we saying government continues to waste funds on a scheme called the National Research Foundation?”

The loophole hiding in plain sight

At the heart of the committee’s concern is a legal mechanism that allows employers to sidestep one of the key protections for South African workers.

Under section 8 of the Employment Services Act, an employer must first satisfy itself that no suitable South African citizen is available before hiring a foreign national.

However, Patriotic Alliance MP, Ashley Sauls, revealed that Home Affairs’ points-based system effectively neutralises this requirement.

“If you score 100 points as a foreign national, the employer can waive section 8,” he told the committee. A foreign national automatically scores 100 points simply by being listed on the critical skills register, a list that, according to members, has not been meaningfully updated since 2022.

“We are still sitting with critical skills that were considered such in 2022,” Sauls said. “University lecturers, corporate managers, general managers – and as a result, South African citizens are being disadvantaged.”

The Department of Higher Education acknowledged it was unaware of the precise mechanics of the points system.

No proof of skills transfer

Compounding the concern is the near-total absence of evidence that skills transfer obligations are being honoured.

The Employment Services Act requires employers to prepare a skills transfer plan for any position filled by a foreign national, yet when committee members pressed the department, it could not confirm whether any university had ever been asked to produce one.

“Is there an actual skills transfer plan at all our universities?” asked DA MP Dr Delmaine Christians. The department said it did not have an answer to this question but would gather more information.

Christians pushed further, arguing that without this evidence, foreign appointments cannot be said to comply with either the Employment Services Act or government’s own policy.

“The biggest gap in our country at the moment is that skills transfer is not taking place adequately,” she said.

Data gaps and a department under pressure

The department’s own data tells a similarly incomplete story. Of the 6 739 foreign nationals recorded in the 2024 audited higher education management information system, critical skills visa information is missing for a large number.

Universities have acknowledged that this data is held in individual human resources files rather than centralised systems, partly citing the Protection of Personal Information Act as justification.

Where do most foreign academics come from?

Zimbabweans make up 27% of the total foreign academic workforce, followed by Nigerians at 14%, with significant representation from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Zambia. Sixty-one percent hold doctoral degrees.

The department has since appointed an 18-member advisory panel and established a joint task team with the Department of Home Affairs to work toward a standardised compliance framework, with a target of presenting a draft to stakeholders by the fourth quarter of 2026.

But for committee members, the urgency is immediate.

“Diplomacy is over,” said Sauls. “We need to make a conscious decision. We are going to put South Africans first – not at the expense of foreign nationals in our institutions, but not at the expense of South African citizens by birth either. That is not just wrong. That is evil.”