The University of Cape Town’s two pro-Gaza resolutions adopted in 2024 resulted in the loss of donor funding worth R250m, including R15m for student bursaries reports News24.
Exacerbating these financial blows, R113.9m for health- and science-related research projects was still outstanding after US federal funding was frozen in 2025, with the Desmond Tutu Health Centre and the Centre for Integrated Data and Epidemiological Research being the worst affected units, according to vice-chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela, who disclosed the information to the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education during a briefing on governance matters last month.
A total of R200m, pledged to the Neuroscience Institute, was lost, along with R50m from various donors, and Moshabela said the council had mandated that management indicate the impact of adopting the resolutions on funding.
He said at least R15m of the R50m in donor funding had been earmarked for annual bursaries for needy students. “They (donors) committed to funding students whom they had already committed to fund, but they did not take on new students.”
Gaza resolutions
On the first resolution concerning the destruction of scholarship and education in Gaza, UCT’s senate had resolved to, among other things, call again for an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid, and the return of all captives as contained in the senate’s resolution of 17 November 2023.
The resolution condemned the destruction of the education sector in Gaza and the massive scale of killing of teachers and university staff, and urged the international community to ensure that the provision of humanitarian aid included the restoration of the education sector in Gaza.
The second resolution banned UCT academics from “entering into relations, or continuing relations, with any research group and/or network whose author affiliations are with the Israeli Defence Forces and/or the broader Israeli military establishment”.
UCT Council chair Norman Arendse SC told the briefing that they had debated the issue and taken all factors into account, including a potential loss of donor funding, when the resolutions were adopted on 22 June 2024.
DA MP Karabo Khakhau said students had been disadvantaged by the decision.
She said: “You are more responsible for advancing the academic project of South African students before you are responsible for having a say about what is happening in Gaza.
“Under no circumstances can solidarity with anything and everything cost the South African child’s ability to study. That, for me, is a problem. If a decision you take threatens the funders of the students… you have the responsibility as an adult to balance the equation. Balance the political equation with your core mandate of funding students.”
Committee chair Walter Letsie said that the council, not UCT’s management, had adopted the resolutions.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, a document forwarded by UCT to the committee has shown that about R113.9m in health and science research funding has remained outstanding after US federal research funding was frozen in early 2025.
The freeze, affecting grants from USAID, NIH (National Institutes of Health), and the US Department of Defence, represents the most significant external financial shock to UCT’s research enterprise in recent memory.
UCT said a substantial proportion of the 178 research projects linked to US funding “remain disrupted, paused or terminated”.
“The most acute risk resides in the 34 projects currently without renewal and the 27 awaiting outcome confirmation, a combined 61 projects whose futures remain unresolved.
“This represents not only financial uncertainty, but the potential permanent loss of research programmes built over many years of institutional investment.”
The human cost of the freeze “is borne most directly by postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows whose research and stipends are tied to affected grants”.
“UCT has identified 48 individuals directly impacted in 2025, with total emergency support costs estimated at R4.1m for the year.”
The document noted that the Desmond Tutu Health Centre was the most acutely affected unit. Its entire staff complement of 54 is at risk, and it faces potential institutional collapse if alternative funding is not secured.
“The situation at the Centre for Integrated Data and Epidemiological Research, where 81% of staff are affected, is similarly critical.”
The document added that the suspension of the Brilliant Consortium and Matrix programmes halts research into HIV vaccine design and novel pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies critical to South Africa’s HIV epidemic response, while the funding freeze for the ENDx-TB also pauses development of new diagnostic tools for incident, active and recurrent TB.
Multiple NIH-funded programmes on cervical cancer screening and digital imaging have also been frozen, “with potential long-term impact on women’s health outcomes”, it said.
Commenting on the R250n loss in donor funding, Wendy Kahn, national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, said they welcomed the parliamentary oversight into what she claimed was an “ill-conceived resolution”.
She added that while the resolution would have zero impact on the situation in the Middle East, it reflects a troubling disregard for South African students, who will now struggle to access UCT since the loss of these bursaries.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said that judgment in the case involving the Gaza resolutions was before the Western Cape High Court, and it was therefore inappropriate to comment.
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Glenda Gray in UCT funding storm
SA universities help Gaza’s medical students beat the odds