We’ve had many engagements with university students and some with lecturers at UCT and Stellenbosch University this year. They were far more receptive to our divestment message than than the asset managers Allan Gray and Ninety One, whose dismissals challenged us to explore, once again, the power of divestment.

Academic institutions in South Africa who want to stand up against the fossil fuel industry – you can sign on here.

This overview was drafted by and edited with the assistance of an FFSA supporter who is an ESCA-registered Pr. Eng., with 12 years work experience in energy efficiency. Comments and possible updates are welcome.

As new evidence emerges internationally to show the efficacy of fossil fuel divestment for accelerating the global struggle to limit climate breakdown, Fossil Free SA has released its first report surveying SA institutions attempting to divest.

Eight years after we first wrote to UCT asking for divestment, the university council decided on 12 March to divest.

After eight long years of trying to persuade UCT to stop investments in fossil fuels, the University of Cape Town’s Panel on Responsible Investment (UPRI) has now published its recommendation on divestment – which is, that UCT should divest from all fossil fuel investments by 2030!

On Tuesday 11 May, UCT students protested to urge the UCT University Panel on Responsible Investment (UPRI) to make the strongest possible recommendations on fossil fuel divestment.

After years of putting pressure on the University of Cape Town to divest from climate-breaking fossil fuels, the university has at last formally launched its responsible investment panel (the University Panel on Responsible Investment, or UPRI) and approved a Responsible and Sustainable Investment Policy! The UPRI now has a formal website, here.

The following was extracted from our 2020 closing newsletter. You can sign up for our newsletters straight to your inbox here.

Letters to the new Council in support of divestment have now been sent by:

• two groups of UCT academics and students, centred on the faculty of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, and Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG)

We've been campaigning for UCT to stop investing in climate-breaking fossil fuels for seven years, while hundreds of global institutions have joined the movement. Over the past few months, many people and institutions have written to the new UCT Council in support of divestment.

We have a significant opportunity for YOU to help progress our campaign asking UCT to start divesting its endowment fund from fossil fuels THIS YEAR, to start to foster a genuinely socially responsible investment industry in South Africa. 

Last Thursday, UCT's Convocation, the body comprising all alumni and academic staff, passed a vote overwhelmingly in favour (40 votes in favour and 8  against) of our motion calling for divestment from fossil fuels, and amendment calling for UCT to lead a coalition for divestment in South Africa.

May 2019: Protest for divestment on campus

UCT's Convocation, the body comprising all alumni and academic staff, meets on Thursday 12 December 2019 at Kramer Building Lecture Theatre 1, Middle Campus at 17h00 for 17h30. For the second time, we will be proposing a motion on divestment. 

The aims of the UCT Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC) include making ‘recommendations on institutional culture...’

Our team is about to hit Rocking the Daisies, and this is what we'll be asking festival-goers to do for the divestment cause –  here we list five quick ways you can take action right now to push South Africa towards a more safe and prosperous future and away from the deadly fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – that threaten our climate, our health and our savings.

Mar 2017, Cape Town: On Tuesday 28 February, the Convocation of the University of Cape Town overwhelmingly passed a non-binding motion – read the minutes of the meeting (pdf) – for the university to rid itself of all investments in fossil fuels within five years.

Our continuing campaign at UCT has moved the university to develop a draft ethical investment policy. If approved, that policy will create the channels for UCT to consider a commitment to divestment.

30 July 2015 The Council Ethical Investment Task Team Appointed by Council The University of Cape Town