• City Varsity, Damelin, ICESA City Campus and Lyceum College have lost their higher education registration with the Department of Higher Education and Training.
• The Department says the decision comes after the colleges, owned by the same holding company, haven’t issued audited financials since 2020.
• According to trade union group SAFTU, Damelin has not been paying employee salaries for most of 2023.

Four private colleges in SA have had their registrations as higher education institutions revoked by the Department of Higher Education and Training, these include City Varsity, Damelin, ICESA City Campus and Lyceum College.

The decision to cancel the registration of these colleges was announced by the Director General of the department, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi, in a government gazette published last week Friday, dated 19th August 2022.

According to Sishi, the private colleges have failed to provide audited annual financial statements since 2020, which is necessary for institutions to retain their higher education registration in SA. The four colleges are owned by the same company in Educor, which claims to be the largest private education provider in Southern Africa.

The holding firm manages 10 private college brands and more than 60 campuses across South African and worldwide.

The cancellation of the registration of the private colleges comes after the Department of Higher Education and Training launched a probe into Educor in February. It seems the holding company is haemorrhaging money, as according to trade union group SAFTU, salaries for employees across Damelin, ICESA and Lyceum campuses were not paid in December last year.

“The colleges have not paid their staff for November and December 2023 wages. In November 2023, SAFTU released a statement lamenting Damelin’s abuse of workers by not paying them on time consistently for the rest of this year, unprofessionally handling their grievances and terminating some contracts without following due process,” the trade union group says.

SAFTU further alleges that Damelin, in particular, has not been paying salaries of employees consistently for most of 2023, and yet is offering bursaries to students of up to R1 million on their website for the 2024 academic year.

In October last year, City Power disconnected Damelin’s private college campus in Randburg alleging sustained non-payment of electrical bills for some time. According to the electricity company, Damelin owes the city over R2 million in unpaid power fees.

“These institutions have completely failed,” South African Union of Students spokesperson, Asive Dlanjwa, told Mail & Guardian on the eve of the deregistration announcement. “They have been given an opportunity to correct and restore the credibility of the institution and have failed.”

SA students at the private colleges are now left in the air with their qualifications as the decision comes well into the academic year.

[Image – City Power on X]