40km of fibre, 23km of water pipes, and enough tar to cover four rugby fields — South Africa’s new university takes shape

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25-09-2025
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The developer behind Solidarity’s private Afrikaans university campus has detailed the sheer scale of the infrastructure that will be rolled out at the R3.2-billion facility over the next two years.

Kanton broke ground on the Akademia campus on the eastern outskirts of Pretoria on 11 August 2025, in preparation for construction commencement in January 2026.

The comprehensive facility is being built along Boschkop Road, roughly eight kilometres from the intersection of Solomon Mahlangu and Lynnwood Drive.

It will include lecture halls, laboratories, office blocks, an auditorium, a library, research halls, a student centre, a cafeteria, restaurants, and coffee shops.

There will also be dedicated accommodation for staff and four men’s and four women’s residences with beds for 1,500 students.

In a recent update, Kanton explained that the ongoing earthworks at the site will include moving 220,000m³ of dirt and clay, enough to fill train carriages with a total combined length of 71km.

The facility will also house 23km of underground water piping, enough to cover the distance between Pretoria and Centurion.

To protect against water disruptions, the campus will be equipped with water storage of roughly 19.3 million litres, the same capacity as seven Olympic swimming pools.

For high-speed Internet connectivity, the campus will be fitted with a network of 40km of fibre optic cables.

Other noteworthy components of the construction will include:

• 7.1 million bricks for buildings and structures, enough to cover the distance between Johannesburg and Cape Town when stacked in a line
• 110,000m² of plastering, enough to cover 1,375 standard classroom walls
• 30,000m² of ceilings and 30,000m² of tar roads, equivalent to roughly four rugby fields

Construction is being done in two primary phases. In phase one, all core academic and operational facilities will be built.

The second phase will include the addition of the residences, auditorium, chapel, and sports facilities for rugby, cricket, netball, tennis, athletics, hockey, swimming, and indoor sports.

Kanton managing director Henk Schalekamp has explained that the first phase will cost roughly R1.8 billion and is aimed for completion by 1 January 2028.

The campus will be able to accommodate 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and nearly 1,500 postgraduate students.

Kanton’s track record

Schalekamp believes the new campus will become a giant monument for Afrikaans higher education. 

As is the case with its other tertiary programmes, all classes and course materials at the Akademia Pretoria East campus will be in Afrikaans.

Founded in 2011, the institution has grown to support five faculties with 18 tertiary qualifications, including eight degrees, five postgraduate diplomas, and three higher certificates.

Among these is a BSc Computer Science degree, which was launched in 2023 at its Centurion campus as its first qualification in the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

While the Akademia campus is Kanton’s biggest undertaking yet, it won’t be its first major project. It was also responsible for the R300-million Sol-Tech campus in Monument Park, Pretoria.

The technical training college, which is also part of the Solidarity Movement, features seven workshops, classrooms for theory lessons, a 400-seat cafeteria, and 400 bed residence.

Construction of that facility started on 13 September 2019 with an initial completion date of 1 December 2020.

Despite a pandemic-induced construction shutdown of more than two months, the facility was completed on time and 9% under budget.

Due to material supply constraints, one of the extraordinary measures required to achieve this was sourcing 1,500m² of side-mounted steel plating from Namibia.

The project was mainly funded using monthly contributions from Solidarity members. For the Akademia Pretoria East campus, Kanton has approached institutions and wealthy individuals as investors.

“When a critical amount of funds is raised for the project to continue, an opportunity will be offered to the community to get involved through smaller investments,” the university explained.

Kanton also plans to develop schools and other property solutions for the Afrikaans community in Southern Africa.