Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za
3-minute read
12 March 2026

Over 100,000 qualified matriculants remain without university placement, prompting Songezo Zibi to call for a parliamentary inquiry.

Thousands of South African matriculants who achieved qualifying results for university admission are being left without opportunities to pursue higher education, highlighting a growing capacity crisis within the country’s post-school education system.

While hundreds of thousands of learners celebrated their matric results earlier this year, many soon faced disappointment when universities informed them that they had not been accepted – despite meeting the required admission scores.

Currently, South Africa’s universities can accommodate only around 230,000 students, leaving more than 100,000 qualified matriculants without placement.

Rise Mzansi leader and Member of Parliament Songezo Zibi has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the state of post-secondary education, arguing that the issue requires urgent national attention.

Speaking to Radio Islam International, Zibi said the rejection of qualified students without clear explanations is deeply damaging.

“I know several kids myself who qualified and didn’t just make it in terms of the scores needed to get into university, but with five or six points over the required limit, and the university simply told them that they had not been accepted without a reason,” he said.

According to Zibi, the lack of transparency leaves many students feeling as though they have failed.

“One child received four such responses on the same day, the day after getting his matric results. The child was devastated because they think maybe they aren’t good enough or that they failed somewhere,” he explained.

Zibi believes universities should be more transparent about the real challenge – limited space.

“A better answer would have been to say we have run out of space. Universities continuously fail to say this. We can’t deny the problem out of existence; we have to deal with it,” he added.

However, he stressed that the problem goes beyond simply building more universities, describing it as a systemic challenge within the country’s education and career guidance structures.

“There are programmes that don’t have enough students enrolling for them because young people prefer certain subjects. At the same time, there are programmes that are oversubscribed even though graduates may struggle to find employment afterwards,” Zibi said.

He also pointed to shortcomings in career guidance within schools, which he believes leaves many learners without sufficient information about their options after matric.

“Is career guidance something that is systematically done, or is it haphazard?” he questioned.

Zibi further emphasised that Parliament has a responsibility to address the issue through the national budgeting process.

“Parliament is the body that passes the budget. If there is a massive problem and provision has not been made for it, Parliament has the power to say: go back and make provision and return with a new proposal,” he said.

The call for a parliamentary inquiry comes as concerns grow that thousands of capable students – many of them the first in their families to reach matric are being excluded from higher education due to structural limitations within the system.

Listen to the full interview on Sabahul Muslim with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Songezo Zibi.