Program Overview

University of Cape Town Summer School Programs

The University of Cape Town offers a variety of summer school programs, including courses in literature, art, music, current affairs, history, philosophy, politics, economics, medicine, science, conservation, and nature.

Summer School 2026

The Summer School 2026 program includes special lectures, tours, excursions, and workshops. Some of the courses offered include:

• Literature, Art, Music
• Current affairs, history, philosophy, Politics, economics
• Medicine
• Science
• Conservation and Nature
• Information Technology
• Practical Courses

Current Affairs, History, Philosophy, Politics, Economics

This course includes a range of topics, such as:

• A tug of memory: 21 years in the Karoo
• Along Karoo roads: Faces, Places & Roadside Encounters
• Building a capable intelligence apparatus: a case study of the intelligence operation against Pagad.
• Cecil John Rhodes in love
• Challenges in land reform: a judicial perspective
• Clickbait, chaos and credibility: how too spot fake news
• Darker shade of pale
• Desmond Tutu – Prophet to Power, Pastor to the People, Healer of a Nation
• Developing South Africa's rural areas
• Has democracy run its course?
• Hiroshima: eighty years on
• In conversation humanball: performance through connection
• Mastering others languages: the difference it makes in South Africa
• Metro matters: local reporting and the 2026 Local elections
• Narrative capture: how disinformation builds the architecture of oppression
• Navigating geopolitcal complexity:How did South Afica's G20 stack up
• Navigating retirement
• Navigating the Trump global era
• Reflections on coalition government and national dialogue: thirty years ago and now
• Sand, sweat and satellite phones: reporting war in the 21st century
• South Africa in 2026: priorities for action
• South African Trappist missions: triumph and tragedy
• Straight out of Pretoria:The news freshly squeezed
• The 1930s: The decade that changed the world
• The Afrikaner Rebellion 1914
• The Battle of Spioenkop: personalities and outcomes
• The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran had to die
• The age of decay: Ageing, shrinking populations and the decline of civilisation
• The crimes they are changing: exploring South Africa's evolving criminal landscape
• The language of emojis: forensic and legal linguistics
• The truth about Cape slavery: Challenging historical distortions
• Tracking the triggers: inside South Africa's firearm controversies
• Tradewinds: The cosmopolitan Swahili world
• Understanding Africa-China relations
• Unlocking South Africa's socio-economic potential
• Vines, wines and political designs
• We can fix it together - solutions to fixing South African education in a post covid road map.

Developing South Africa's Rural Areas

Course Description

The rural economy should not be forgotten in South Africa's economic growth agenda, where there tends to be a strong urban bias in policy discussions. The rural areas are still a significant segment of society and the economy, though 68% of the population now lives in urban areas.

Course Details

• Date: Friday, 23 January
• Time: 1:00 pm
• Course Fee: R115; Staff and students R58
• Lecturer: Wandile Sihlobo, Chief Economist, Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa

Lecturer Biography

Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz). He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance. Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2024), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018. He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).

Books Authored

• "The Uncomfortable Truth About South Africa's Agriculture (March 2025)"
• "A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, the Challenges, the Solutions (2023)"
• "Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture (2020)"