Zimbabwean and Nigerian nationals accounted for over 40 per cent of the total foreign academic workforce.
South Africa’s public universities had more than 7,000 foreign academics on their payroll as at 2025, according to official figures released by the country’s higher education authorities.
Zimbabwean and Nigerian nationals accounted for over 40 per cent of the total foreign academic workforce.
The figures, made public by independent news platform Truth Panther, showed that Zimbabwean nationals constituted 27 per cent of foreign academics across South Africa's public universities, while Nigerians accounted for 14 per cent.
The disclosure comes amid recurring anti-immigrant sentiments and periodic xenophobic attacks targeting foreign nationals, particularly Nigerians, Zimbabweans and other African migrants living and working in South Africa.
