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City Varsity’s Cape Town saga — students lack academic results, staff face UIF battles and unpaid salaries

City Varsity’s Cape Town saga — students lack academic results, staff face UIF battles and unpaid salaries
Siyabonga Goni
By Siyabonga Goni
14 Mar 2025
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The City Varsity crisis in Cape Town has left students unable to apply to other institutions due to missing academic transcripts, while staff fight to survive with unpaid salaries and inconsistent UIF payments since September 2024.

Educor’s private institution, City Varsity, a media and creative arts school in Cape Town, is not living up to its motto of “Dream, Believe and Achieve”.

Many students’ dreams have been shattered and not much has been achieved after City Varsity failed to supply their 2024 academic results, leaving them stuck at home, unable to move on to their next study year or apply to other institutions.

Educor’s licence, along with its institutions Damelin, Intec College, City Varsity and Lyceum, was deregistered last year in March due to student complaints and a failure to submit financial statements and tax certificates. The licence was provisionally reinstated in August by Minister of Higher Education Dr Nobuhle Nkabane.

Read more: Nzimande lashes Damelin, CityVarsity, Intec and Lyceum for ‘worst sin’ committed by an education institution

Parents and students in limbo


Daily Maverick spoke to frustrated parents who have been left in the dark with no clarification from City Varsity on the future of their children. Meanwhile, students are depressed as their artistic dreams fade. 

Ms M, a parent of a third-year multimedia and graphic design student who did not want to be named, said it had been difficult – their children had been home since September 2024 with no updates from the school on the closure.

‘We felt robbed’


The disconsolate third-year student told Daily Maverick they were so close to completing their studies, but things went quiet after they were told to remain home.

“We only had a couple of months to go and get our degree to finish the year, but everything went silent, no one told us anything and the lecturers couldn’t get word from the (City Varsity) higher-ups… It felt like we were being robbed. While we were doing nothing, they (City Varsity) were still demanding money. They were taking our future away from us and we need our degree,” said the student.

Another parent who wanted to remain anonymous told Daily Maverick that when the deregistration was announced in March 2024, she followed up with former manager of City Varsity Hendri Jooste, who told her that they students would graduate. However, that is no longer the case.

“In September, Jooste resigned and they could not give us any answers, leaving us with no one to hold accountable. They have been just lying to us,” said the parent. 

Read more: Students left stranded by the unravelling of City Varsity and the failures of Educor

Students say they did not receive their results for the 2024 academic year and parents are demanding either refunds or results, so their children can apply elsewhere.

“If City Varsity has a branch in another province, why can’t they allow the final-year students to complete their degrees? And I want full reimbursement because when my son wanted to study animation, we sacrificed over R150,000 to City Varsity and we are left with nothing,” said a parent.

The campus in Roeland Street has been repainted white and the red-and-white City Varsity colours have been removed, raising fears among parents who suggested that the building might be sold.

A former City Varsity student who wanted to be anonymous told Daily Maverick that despite the DHET and City Varsity's assurances, students did not receive their degrees as planned.

“DHET intervention was lacking from the start, as there was no real plan to enforce when finishing the pipeline students, and they made reassurances without any follow-through. The fact that registration was provisionally reinstated, actually did more harm than good, because Educor was able to leverage that to convince students that everything was okay, when it really wasn’t. We were kept in a state of limbo for far too long,” said the student.

Speaking about how this affected her, the student said: “Aside from the financial loss, this failure of the system greatly affected me. Not just because of wasted time and money, as we paid our fees in full for all three years, but because only 50% of the credits of a completed year are transferable…this experience has been severely disorienting, and looms over us as the affected students, nor the repetitional damages, as industry professionals are aware of what happened at City Varsity,” said the student.

Unpaid staff


Daily Maverick has reported that close to 20 educators resigned from City Varsity in Cape Town after disputes over unpaid salaries and CCMA battles.

Read more: Educor’s City Varsity in Cape Town in turmoil with students stranded, ‘heartbroken’ teachers unpaid

Three City Varsity employees, who asked to remain anonymous, told Daily Maverick they had not received their full salaries since September 2024 and their UIF had not been paid in full.

A lecturer said it had been difficult because she had to move back with family members.

“They owe me half of September’s salary, and onwards till this year. I’ve been checking my UIF as well. I started working last year in March, and my UIF was only paid for April and May 2024, and then the rest of the months, nothing until December. They paid UIF again in January 2025.

“I tried to stay on campus as much as I could, even though we‘re not getting paid, I had to borrow money from family members and even the monthly payments, you know, the debit orders that had to go out. I couldn’t pay for those and I had to start relying on family to a point where now there’s a rift between us because of that. I’m not gonna lie, this has affected my health,” said the lecturer.

Another staff member who has worked at City Varsity for more than five years said she had to sell personal items just to survive after not receiving a salary since October.

City Varsity response


Daily Maverick spoke to City Varsity director Melvin Munsami, who said the reason students could not complete the academic year was due to the resignation of lecturers.

“On Monday, 2 December 2024, a co-ordinated and mass resignation took place, which appears to have been a deliberate attempt by certain staff members to disrupt the 2024 academic process and impede students from completing their studies, which resulted in the 2024 academic year being delayed,” said Munsami.

Responding to the academic records issue, Munsami said: “We have issued academic records to all requests from paid-up students who had requested it, and further point out that there is a systematic process in place to monitor these requests.”

‘No work, no pay’


On staff payments and the UIF issue, Munsami denied the allegations, saying there was a policy guidance on when to pay staff.

“City Varsity staff are compensated in line with services rendered, and in line with the ‘no work, no pay’ policy that has been implemented,” said Munsami.

Daily Maverick asked the Department of Higher Education for clarification on the provisional reinstatement of Educor. However, the department did not respond to the questions.

“We have no comment on Educor… The department is still monitoring the situation and we have nothing further to add,” said Department of Higher Education and Training spokesperson Camagwini Mavovana. 

The Council of Higher Education’s chief executive, Dr Whitfield Green, said they had received complaints and challenges faced by City Varsity students and staff. “The institution has been requested to address these concerns and to report on how the student and staff concerns have been addressed. There has been no response from the institution. The HEQC resolved that a panel of academic peers must be appointed to investigate the state of provisioning of accredited higher education programmes by City Varsity,” he said. 

A panel of peers had visited the institution to verify the criteria for programme accreditation, and would submit a report to the council on what steps should be taken next. DM

This article was updated on 16 March 2025 at 10.15am to include comment from the Council of Higher Education.

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