South Africa’s oldest university deteriorating in front of everyone’s eyes

·2 Jan 2025

The University of Cape Town’s upper campus shows clear signs of neglect and decay, including water damage, paint peeling off walls, and broken ceilings.

This was revealed in a series of posts on X by South African attorney and educational specialist Richard Wilkinson.

The University of Cape Town was founded in 1829 as the South African College, a high school for boys.

The College had a small tertiary-education facility that grew substantially after 1880 when gold and diamonds were discovered in the north.

Thanks to increased funding from private and government sources, the college developed into a fully-fledged university from 1880 to 1900.

It grew into the top-rated university in South Africa and Africa and one of the top-rated tertiary institutions in the world.

Many University of Cape Town researchers are recognised as world leaders in their respective fields and produce globally renowned research.

However, the university has faced significant challenges in recent years, which is clearly visible in the state of its campus.

Wilkinson visited the University of Cape Town in December 2024 and shared photos of the deterioration he saw.

“I spent an hour walking around the University of Cape Town’s upper campus. I could see clear signs of neglect and decay everywhere,” he said.

He said he saw dirty steps, paint peeling off walls, and an elevator that was out of order. There was also widespread mould and water damage.

Wilkinson posted pictures of broken tutorial boxes, a door which has lost its vent cover, and wall signs that have been ripped off and never replaced.

There were also broken ceilings, dirty walls, random mops lying around, and a door that had lost its brass fittings.

One thing that struck Wilkinson was the state of the signage on the upper campus. “Many signs are in a truly terrible state—faded, broken, and peeling,” he said.

He said the sign by the rugby field was unreadable. He added that the Cissie Gool Mall sign was knocked over with chevron tape and rubble strewn around.

“This shouldn’t take long to fix or cost a lot of money. It just seems that no one cares,” Wilkinson said.

There was also a lot of rubbish around the campus, and Wilkinson said many of the rubbish bins don’t seem to have been cleared out in weeks.

“There is a noticeable amount of litter on the campus. Sometimes lying in giant piles as if it has been dumped there,” he said.

Another thing that stood out for Wilkinson was the poor state of the drainpipes. “They look as if they haven’t been painted in 10 years and are rusting away,” he said.

He added that plants are growing in gutters, which is not good for drainage and is a serious fire hazard.

The general state of buildings on the UCT campus is poor, with broken masonry, broken and unmaintained windows, and broken doors.

“There were once beautiful green lampposts outside of the PD Hahn building. These seem to have been broken with the bases turned into rusting rubbish bins,” he said.

The gardens are also in a poor state. “It is as if no one is watering the plants and no one is tending to the gardens. Everything is overgrown or dying,” he said.

“The University of Cape Town’s upper campus is starting to resemble a poorly-run municipality like Johannesburg or Durban or Pietermaritzburg,” he said.

Wilkinson blamed misguided ideologies, commonplace at many South African universities, for the decay.

University of Cape Town responds

The University of Cape Town told BusinessTech that it had noted the social media posts in question.

“UCT is a large institution featuring several precincts spread across five campuses in different locations,” it said.

“As such, the pictures shared on social media do not reflect the general state of the university campuses.” It said maintaining a clean and safe environment is a top priority.

“As with most institutions, UCT conducts a planned and ongoing maintenance programme, utilising the vacation period to undertake core aspects of this work,” it said.

“The maintenance and litter collection matters previously alluded to have already been resolved.”

“Using skeleton staff over the vacation period means that other work will be attended to in due course, as the programme allows.”