Financial Impact on South African Academia
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has experienced significant financial setbacks, losing approximately 250 million rand ($15.2 million) in donor funding. This withdrawal occurred after the university adopted two resolutions related to Israel's military actions in Gaza. UCT Vice-Chancellor Mosa Moshabela informed Parliament in June about these losses, detailing that the Donald Gordon Foundation retracted the remaining funds from a 200 million rand ($12.1 million), ten-year commitment intended for a neuroscience institute. Additionally, other benefactors withheld an extra 50 million rand ($3 million), which included 15 million rand ($910,000) annually designated for student bursaries.
This financial blow is particularly impactful in South Africa, a nation identified by the World Bank as having the highest level of inequality globally. By December 2025, UCT's student debt had surpassed one billion rand ($60.7 million), and in February 2026, around 1,400 students were still unable to register due to outstanding fees. In South Africa, many low-income Black families rely on public assistance and private bursaries for higher education, a legacy stemming from apartheid policies that restricted their access to land, income, education, and inherited wealth. The financial resources and principles upheld by institutions like UCT are crucial for students grappling with these systemic inequalities, making the donor withdrawals a contentious issue.
UCT's Resolutions and the IHRA Definition
The two resolutions adopted by UCT that led to the donor withdrawals are multifaceted. The first resolution called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid, the release of captives, and the reconstruction of Gaza's educational infrastructure. The second resolution, equally principle-driven, sought to prevent UCT academics from collaborating with research groups or networks whose members were affiliated with the Israeli military or its broader establishment. It is important to note that these measures did not target Israeli or Jewish scholars based on their identity, and the restriction on military-linked research has not yet been implemented by UCT.
Court documents reveal that the Donald Gordon Foundation conditioned its financial support on UCT's adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, issued in 2016. This definition, an intergovernmental body focused on Holocaust education, includes eleven illustrative examples, seven of which pertain to Israel. Critics argue that this framework can conflate opposition to Zionism or Israeli policies with antisemitism. In contrast, UCT endorsed the Jerusalem Declaration, a document developed by scholars in 2021 and signed by over 400 academics. This declaration condemns antisemitism while safeguarding the right to criticize Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights. UCT viewed the foundation's insistence on the IHRA definition as an attempt to dictate the scope of academic expression and autonomy, which the university ultimately rejected.
The Legacy of Apartheid Wealth
This situation extends beyond a simple dispute over donations; it represents an effort to leverage private wealth, accumulated within an apartheid economic system, to influence the political and intellectual direction of a South African university. The Donald Gordon Foundation's financial influence stems from Donald Gordon's fortune, which was built through the financial services company Liberty Life during the apartheid era. Liberty Life began operations in 1957, a period when apartheid policies systematically converted Black dispossession into white capital. This involved land seizures, forced relocations, suppressed wages, and job reservations, which impoverished African communities while concentrating wealth among whites. By 1970, the per-capita income for Africans was only 6.8 percent of the white level, and by 1995, white per-capita income remained 7.4 times that of Africans. Furthermore, approximately 82 million hectares (202 million acres) of commercial farmland, representing 86 percent of all farmland, remained under white ownership.
The Donald Gordon Foundation was established in August 1971, as Liberty Life expanded within this racially structured market. The company's growth was not merely concurrent with apartheid's racial order but intrinsically linked to an economy where income, assets, and investment capacity were deliberately organized along racial lines. Despite political liberation in April 1994, the resources extracted from Black communities were not fully recovered, nor was the wealth generated by their exploitation adequately redistributed. A 2024 study estimated that 45 percent of white adults possessed at least 250,000 rand ($15,200) in inheritable assets, compared to only three percent of Black adults. This enduring economic disparity reinforces UCT's solidarity with Palestinians, who are experiencing land expropriation, settler violence, displacement, and enforced poverty.
The Broader Context of Academic Freedom and International Pressure
The withdrawal of funds, including the 15 million rand ($910,000) annually for bursaries, disproportionately affects Black students—individuals from families denied comparable assets due to colonialism and white minority rule. South Africa's historical experience with apartheid highlights how education can be weaponized. During 1975-76, the state spent 644 rand ($38) on each white pupil but only 42 rand ($2.50) on each Black child, effectively preparing one group for leadership and the other for subservience. This history imbues South African universities with a unique responsibility to recognize the deliberate destruction of education as a tool of domination.
In Gaza, the educational infrastructure has been severely impacted. By April 2026, nearly 98 percent of school buildings were damaged, 81 percent directly hit, and 93 percent required extensive rehabilitation or complete reconstruction. By June, over 179 public schools and 63 university buildings had been destroyed. Al-Israa University, which housed medical and engineering laboratories and a national museum, was intentionally demolished in January 2024 after being occupied by Israeli troops. The destruction of these educational facilities, which served almost half a million Palestinian children, imperils the ability of Palestinians to educate future generations and sustain national life. The term “scholasticide,” coined by Palestinian scholar Karma Nabulsi during Israel’s 2008-09 offensive, describes this systematic assault on education, a practice that has escalated since October 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,048 education workers, 19,101 school students, and 1,379 university students. In September 2025, a United Nations commission of inquiry formally concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Donald Gordon Foundation's intervention is not an isolated incident but part of a broader Western trend that uses financial leverage, disciplinary actions, and policing to suppress pro-Palestinian advocacy. In the United States, allegations of antisemitism linked to pro-Palestinian campus protests led to the cancellation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts for Columbia University and a freeze of $2.2 billion at Harvard University, alongside demands for changes in governance and academic oversight. Similar actions have been observed in the United Kingdom, where institutions have initiated proceedings against protesters and Cambridge obtained court orders restricting demonstrations. In Canada, the University of Toronto secured an injunction to dismantle an encampment demanding divestment from companies connected to the conflict in Gaza. These actions, despite their varying scales, demonstrate a concerted effort by governments, donors, and campus authorities to increase the material cost of opposing Israel's military actions, threatening research, employment, enrollment, and institutional viability. While academic freedom is often proclaimed as a universal principle, it appears to be curtailed when scholars use it to support Palestinian human rights and challenge occupation, apartheid, and alleged genocide.
Universities require private support, and UCT has a responsibility to its students. However, reliance on donors does not necessitate political compliance. Despite the recent withdrawals, UCT's overall donor funding has increased by over 11 percent since 2024, albeit with a decrease in the number of donors. This growth indicates that UCT can maintain substantial donor backing without compromising its academic independence or its stance on Palestinian rights. While universities cannot prevent donors from withdrawing funds, they can mitigate the power of individual benefactors to penalize students for institutional political decisions. UCT should establish a replacement fund for affected bursaries and seek support from alumni, trade unions, responsible businesses, and foundations that do not impose political conditions. South African universities should also publicly disclose any ideological stipulations attached to major donations and create a collective defense fund for students impacted by punitive withdrawals. Government intervention is also crucial to guarantee bursaries threatened when benefactors attempt to dictate scholarship, research, or public advocacy. The right of Gaza's children and students to learn, question, and shape their future is paramount. UCT must protect its students while upholding its commitment to the Palestinian people, refusing to yield its moral compass to financial pressure.
