Underutilised infrastructure transfer delays: Higher Education, DPWI, DBE interaction

Video The Portfolio Committees on Higher Education, Public Works and Infrastructure, and Basic Education convened to engage with the Departments of Higher Education (DHE), Basic Education (DBE), and Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) on the long-standing failure to transfer state-owned land and buildings to post-school education and training (PSET) institutions. The meeting followed oversight visits conducted earlier in the year to Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, during which institutions reported that they could not improve infrastructure that did not belong to them. The Committee had subsequently requested an audit from DHE of all PSET institutions whose infrastructure development was blocked by unresolved land ownership. The results of that audit confirmed the scale of the problem and necessitated a joint sitting to compel coordination and drive the finalisation of outstanding governance instruments. DHE presented institution-by-institution evidence that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, Community of Education and Training (CET) colleges, and universities across all nine provinces were operating on land and in buildings they did not own, without formalised agreements, and with no coordinated resolution mechanism in place. Of 406 TVET college sites nationally, 33 were under DPWI custodianship, many donated in the late 1980s without title transfer. Colleges could therefore not obtain municipal building authorisations, could not approve demolitions without dual ministerial sign-off, and could not plan enrolment growth with certainty. CET colleges in most provinces occupied buildings without formal Permissions to Occupy. University cases included the Tshwane University of Technology's Soshanguve North Campus, for which a transfer had been sought since 2000; the University of the Free State's Building 131, engaged on since about 2000; Central University of Technology (CUT) had paid over R104 million for a land exchange with the Free State Provincial Government but could not take occupation; and UNISA's Daveyton Campus lease with the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, with Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) failing to convene a single meeting since the matter was referred in October 2025. DHE called for the immediate reinstatement of the Joint Task Team (JTT) and the finalisation of the draft Framework, Terms of Reference, and Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). DBE reported that it had offered DHE a list of 1 525 closed schools, compiled as of 8 August 2025, for possible repurposing as PSET facilities. DBE noted that a significant number of the schools were in acceptable condition and could be repurposed with limited intervention. It was confirmed that nearly a year after the offer was formalised, DHE had not yet made any selections and the decommissioning process had not commenced. DPWI reported that following parliamentary criticism in March 2023, the JTT was reconvened in July 2023, but a detailed property list from institutions was only received in August 2023, delaying the process further. DPWI identified constitutional constraints as the central structural obstacle, noting that land was distributed across national, provincial, and municipal spheres and that it could not impose timelines on properties it did not own. DPWI confirmed that it had signed the MoA, which was still awaiting DHE's signature, and that 11 properties had been identified across five provinces as potentially suitable for student accommodation. DPWI submitted that progress was contingent on DHE signing the MoA and resolving outstanding norms. Members expressed deep frustration at the pace of progress and the quality of DHE's preparation for the sitting. Members questioned why DHE had not signed the MoA that DPWI had already signed, and asked for specific timelines for its finalisation. Members asked how many of the 11 identified properties were ready for occupancy and how many of the 83 properties and 143 sites identified in 2023 had been formally assessed, repurposed, or transferred. They questioned why the Central University of Technology's matter had not been resolved despite ISA being tasked with it since June 2025, with feedback due in October 2025 and still outstanding eight months later. Members pressed why the Walter Sisulu University land had not been transferred in ten years, and why the University of the Free State's matter remained unresolved after 26 years. They raised the Gert Sibande TVET College property at Erf 1025 in Standerton, where a request had been pending since 2014, and outstanding documentation had been identified in 2021, yet the transfer remained incomplete. Members questioned the Sol Plaatje University transfers pending since 2013 and the status of the 20 km proximity threshold norm for student accommodation. They asked about the cost of leased properties resulting from transfer failures, the cost of deteriorating unoccupied assets, and if DHE was paying DPWI for properties already occupied under DPWI custodianship. They raised the absence of cost analyses on the 83 sought properties and the absence of clear deadlines for the Diepkloof and Upington CET infrastructure projects. DHE confirmed through its DDG that the JTT had not convened since 2023 and that mandate challenges had been cited by legal advisors as an obstacle to reaching consensus on the MoA. The Director-General accepted full responsibility for the MoA not having been signed. DHE confirmed that no cost analysis had been conducted on the properties in question. DPWI confirmed that it was aware of the blockage regarding CUT, and that attempts to engage the Free State Office of the Premier had been unsuccessful. It also confirmed that the 20 km proximity threshold formed part of a revision of the 2015 Norms and Standards and committed to responding in writing on the SPU properties and the WSU vesting matter. Members were told that the WSU land had been erroneously vested with the national Department of Rural Development and that rectification was required under the Deeds Registry Act before the province could effect a transfer. DPWI committed to assisting the universities concerned with that process within seven days. The most acute pain point to emerge was the MoA remaining unsigned, combined with the revelation that the JTT had not met since 2023 and that DHE had conducted no cost analysis on the properties it was seeking. The Committee stated in unambiguous terms that DHE's presentation had been misleading, that the Department had not played its own part in the intergovernmental process, and that a Director-General appearing before Parliament to concede that fundamental preparatory work had not been done was unacceptable. A further pain point was the revelation that DHE had been engaging the wrong DPWI provincial department about the WSU land for a decade, and that the erroneous vesting only emerged under questioning rather than through the presentation. The absence of a project manager with defined deadlines, the non-approval of bid committee officials by the Accounting Officer, and the complete lack of communication between DHE's newly assigned infrastructure official and DPWI counterparts all pointed to a systemic breakdown in the Department's internal coordination. The joint sitting resolved that DHE, DBE, and DPWI must reconvene the JTT within seven days and produce a signed MoA, to be submitted to the joint parliamentary committees together with a quarterly meeting schedule and minutes reflecting progress, challenges, and areas requiring legislative intervention. The Chairpersons recommended that both DHE and DPWI approach the State Attorney to resolve outstanding mandate-related legal friction points. DHE was required to submit a progress report on the reconvening of the JTT and the signing of the MoA to the PCHET by 10 June, which would then inform the convening of the next joint meeting. They instructed DPWI to direct ISA to fast-track its outstanding obligations to DHE.