A leading researcher has claimed that her talk at a South African university was cancelled because of “institutional concerns about the participation of international academics”.

’Funmi Olonisakin, vice-president for international, engagement and service at King’s College London, was due to speak at the University of Mpumalanga on 3 September ahead of the launch of the institution’s Nokuthula Simelane Center for Gender and Intersectional Studies.

But she said that the event was cancelled two days before it was due to take place.

“I was informed that this session was cancelled because of institutional concerns about the participation of international academics, and how this would be perceived in the context of imminent SRC [Student Representative Council] elections on 4 September and local elections in November,” she told ߣߣ��Ƶ.

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“Given the concerns expressed I opted to not participate in the rest of the programme out of concerns for how my presence in any capacity might be construed.”

The row comes amid concern about xenophobic protests over the summer in South Africa that forced thousands of foreigners, mostly from other African countries, to leave.

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But the University of Mpumalanga, based in Mbombela and Siyabuswa, claimed that Olonisakin’s seminar had been postponed “due to other events” and that it hoped to host her in future.

Concerns had been raised about the case by Adam Habib, vice-chancellor of SOAS University of London, who said that the episode “terrifies the hell” out of him.

“I’ve been really concerned about populist, xenophobic actors challenging universities about the number of international students they have, the number of international staff they have there…Frankly, the universities have held the line, but they’ve done so by trying to explain themselves,” said Habib, former vice-chancellor of Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand.

“Universities by their very nature are meant to be cosmopolitan. They are meant to have international staff. The fact that this discourse has emerged is unacceptable and it needs to be tackled stridently.”

This summer’s protests have been violent and in some cases deadly, with anti-foreigner feeling having been worsened by high unemployment. After Nelson Mandela’s election as the country’s first democratically chosen leader, South Africa’s foreign-born population almost tripled to 2.4 million between 1996 and 2022.

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Current president Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to crack down on illegal entry to the country.

The University of Mpumalanga had last month  after a visit by the South African parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, affirming its commitment to “recruitment processes that prioritise South African academics and non-academic staff”.

This followed social media posts which alleged that the university had prioritised foreign nationals over South Africans in hiring – claims that the institution had denied. Its statement promised a “comprehensive review” of appointment policies.

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MP Walter Tebogo Letsie, the chair of the parliamentary committee, said that which scholars were invited to campuses was “a decision for that institution and its council”. South Africa’s higher education sector “benefits from engagement with the international academic community”, he said.

A spokesperson for the university said that Ramaphosa was due to visit the campus on the same day as Olonisakin to give a lecture commemorating Simelane, an apartheid-era student activist who was forcibly disappeared by apartheid security police in 1983, and whose remains are still missing. Student election rallies were also due to take place ahead of elections the following day.

“The university took a decision to postpone the seminar due to other events. Professor Olonisakin was informed about the decision by the university to reduce the programme only to the lecture by the president. Professor Olonisakin opted not to participate in the revised programme, given circumstantial sensitivities,” the Mpumalanga spokesperson said.

“The university looks forward to hosting Professor Olonisakin in the near future.”

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The spokesperson added: “It is not true that there are government officials who requested the event to be cancelled.”

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com