South Africa

South Africa getting new R3.2 billion private Afrikaans university campus

Shaun Jacobs • 23 February 2025

Akademia, in collaboration with Kanton, is busy constructing the largest project in its history, building a new university campus worth R3.2 billion.

First announced in August 2024, the project was featured in Nedbank’s most recent Capital Expenditure Project Listing report as one of the largest private investments in South Africa.

The project comes at a time when fixed investment in the country remains subdued and well below historical averages.

Over the past five years, fixed investment has averaged 14.2% of annual GDP – far below the average in the mid-to-late 2000s, when it peaked at 23% of GDP.

It is also a far cry from the government’s investment goals, with the National Development Plan envisioning fixed investment of 30% of GDP when unveiled in 2011.

The decline in investment has resulted in South Africa ranking second-last among emerging markets by fixed investment-to-GDP.

Nedbank chief economist Nicky Weimar said this is one of the main reasons behind the country’s lacklustre economic growth over the past decade.

Weimar also explained that the decline has largely been driven by a collapse in investment from state-owned enterprises, which has resulted in a huge infrastructure backlog and government departments.

This, in turn, has hindered the private sector’s ability to invest in the local economy as deteriorating infrastructure constrained growth and decimated confidence.

Load-shedding, logistical inefficiencies, and water shortages make South Africa unattractive for private investment and outweigh the expected return on investment.

As a result, South African companies are sitting on large piles of cash and idle capacity as they have been unwilling to invest in expanding their businesses.

Research from Old Mutual indicates that large corporations alone may have as much as R1.2 trillion in idle cash.

If the government can create an environment conducive to private sector investment, companies could tap into these reserves to fund substantial growth in fixed investment.

However, this will require large investments from SOEs and the government beforehand to fix vital infrastructure and network industries that private companies rely on to operate.

South Africa’s new Afrikaans university campus

Despite this, several large private-sector investments were announced in 2024, including a new R18 billion city outside Sandton.

Among these investments is Akademia’s Campus Development project in Pretoria as part of its Toekomsbouer (future builder) campaign.

This campus project is the most significant development project in the history of the Afrikaans language community, and it aims to ensure the sustainability of higher education in Afrikaans.

The project has already broken ground and is set to be completed in time for first-year students in 2028.

The project, in partnership with real estate development company Kanton, will provide accommodation for 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and about 1,500 postgraduate students.

Four men’s and four women’s residences will accommodate 1,500 students on campus.

This marks a significant expansion for Akademia, which has been using interim solutions since 2012 and only launched its full-time campus model in 2021.

There are currently two Akademia campuses, four residences, two-day houses, and an administrative head office in Centurion.

Akademia said that the new comprehensive residential campus east of Pretoria will allow the institution to consolidate its growth over the past decade.

It will also give its future campus students a fixed address where they can experience an active and exciting student life.

The development will be located in Pretoria, eight kilometres from Solomon Mahlangu Drive on the Boschkop Road.

“Phase one of the project will amount to approximately R1,8 billion and will be completed on 1 January 2028, while the total development cost will be more than R3 billion,” the managing director of Kanton, Henk Schalekamp, said.

Kanton serves as a vehicle for financing the development of the new Akademia campus. Kanton approached institutions and wealthy individuals to finance the initial investment.

When a critical amount of funds is raised for the project to continue, an opportunity will be offered to the community to get involved through smaller investments.

Kanton has a track record of delivering projects on time and within budget, as demonstrated by their work on Solidarity’s Sol-Tech technical college campus in Centurion.

The development will also include various restaurants and cafes and extensive sports facilities for rugby, cricket, tennis, athletics, and swimming.

The initial groundwork is slated to start in the middle of 2027, while the commencement of the first construction phase is planned for January 2026.