Dr Sheetal Bhoola is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand, and director at StellarMaths (Sunningdale)
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South African universities over the last two decades have revealed job and student precarity in various ways, emphasising structural inequalities through systemic contradictions.
Universities such as Stellenbosch, Wits and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) have positioned themselves as globally competitive and are respected for their research initiatives and the hubs of innovation and development that they have created.
Yet, parallel to this lies a stark reality of structural inequality and the lived realities of students, which are often detrimental to psychological and mental well-being, nutritional health and academic performance. There is an obvious disjuncture between the way South African universities are portrayed and the lived realities of the student and staff experience.
At the onset of the 2026 academic year, it was reported that six universities experienced student protests, which were violent and driven by student exclusions and demands for NSFAS remittances. At Nelson Mandela University, protesters burnt tyres to block university entrances, and violent confrontations between police and protesters resulted in many students being injured.
At Durban University of Technology in February this year, the protests led to campus closures and the implementation of virtual classrooms and digital teaching and learning pedagogies. Wits, Stellenbosch and UCT also experienced student protests, predominantly due to delays in NSFAS funding disbursements, which resulted in student registrations being postponed and accommodation remaining inaccessible for many students.
In recent years, we have witnessed a “protest season” period that takes place annually at many public universities in South Africa. The contributing factors predominantly include the lack of timeous disbursement of funding, as well as additional student grievances.
At Stellenbosch last month, a Bachelor of Arts student passed away and had reportedly been experiencing hardship prior to his death. He lost his NSFAS funding and took on two jobs to support his educational journey. This incident has served as a catalyst for the institution to be scrutinised for its lack of student accommodation facilities, student safety on university campuses, NSFAS funding deficits, as well as student well-being and safety, which is intrinsically related to food insecurity and academic performance.
This death can be perceived as a public exposure of the systemic contradictions that university students now live with in democratic South Africa. Statistics have indicated that nationally, student debt has increased across all universities, and last year's total student debt had already amounted to R1.1 billion.
Food insecurity remains a pervasive, complex and structurally embedded crisis within higher education, disproportionately impacting students in South Africa because of historical inequality and the continued socio-economic challenges that persist in democratic South Africa. Recent studies have indicated that students often have to mitigate these challenges through various approaches, such as skipping meals and consuming calorie-rich foods that are generally low in nutritional value. These diets, and the practice of skipping meals, impact the physical and mental health of students, resulting in poor academic focus and performance.
In the 2010s, studies revealed that more than half of the surveyed student populations at institutions such as the University of the Free State (UFS) and UKZN endured varying degrees of food insecurity. Recent data has also validated the persistence of this crisis. In 2021, a survey at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) found that 68.5% of students had experienced food insecurity during that academic year, and a 2025 Daily Maverick report highlighted that between 11% and 38% of South African students face the daily reality of severe hunger (Pelser, 2026).
Crucially, institutions are fraught with historical inequality and serve many poverty-stricken students, a situation exacerbated by policy instability that does not meet the requirements of students. Within institutions, inequality has been reproduced and is evident through the visibility of impoverished students who are masked within the identity marker of excellence presented to the rest of the world.
Therefore, one has to question how a university can claim excellence and progression if its students experience conditions of exclusion, inequality and a lack of support from their institutions.
The death of the student studying at Stellenbosch has placed the spotlight on university structures and related support mechanisms for students. The reasons for his death remain obscure and can be linked to multiple structural factors, including a lack of institutional support. Students who depend on NSFAS scholarships and allowances need to be supported appropriately if funding has been unexpectedly delayed or cancelled.
Students also need to be taught how to manage their allowances effectively once they become first-year university students. Money management skills, and the consequences of mismanaging funds, are central to preparing students for successful living.
The ad hoc administrative processes that result in inefficiencies and delayed NSFAS disbursements have contributed to students experiencing higher stress levels than usual, compounded by food insecurity.
From a sociological perspective, the Stellenbosch situation can be understood as a form of institutional contradiction under neoliberal pressure. Universities are expected to function simultaneously as sites of global excellence and as vehicles of social transformation. Yet, in the absence of adequate public funding, which causes students to rely on alternative means of income, economically challenged students continue to face exclusion.
This is the paradox: institutions stand by the mandate of inclusion, yet are structurally compelled to exclude.
As long as higher education remains underfunded and reliant on unstable financing mechanisms, crises of this nature are likely to recur. The cyclical nature of student protests and food insecurity on campuses, particularly during registration periods, attests to this structural continuity.
*The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.*
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