Scholarship has sailed: Rhodes Trust stops selecting ex-pupils from 13 top South African schools

The Rhodes Trust has suspended selecting past pupils from four top schools and their nine partner schools for scholarships in 2025, following concerns for some time that applicants and winners remain "predominantly white", 30 years after apartheid ended.

English mining magnate, Cecil John Rhodes, who served as prime minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896, stipulated in his will that four Rhodes scholarships annually should be awarded to past pupils of Bishops, Paul Roos Gymnasium and South African College School in Western Cape, as well as St Andrew's College in Makhanda, to study at Oxford University in the UK.

Over the past decade, former pupils of the four schools' partner schools - including LEAP 1, St Cyprians, Herschel Girls', St George's Grammar School, Rhenish Girls' High, Bloemhof Girls' High, Diocesan School for Girls, Sans Souci High, and Rustenburg Girls' High - were also eligible to apply.