Matatiele Municipality Free First-Year Registration

Written by Keagan HendricksStaff Writer (Unisa Alumnus)

Reviewed & verified by Naledi KhumaloSenior Admissions and Bursaries EditorVerified

Matatiele Local Municipality, which covers Matatiele, Cedarville and Maluti in the Alfred Nzo district of the Eastern Cape, offered in 2026 to pay the university registration fee for first-year students from its poorest households. The support is narrow by design. It pays only the registration fee, only for a first undergraduate qualification, and only at a public university. Applications opened on 12 January 2026 and closed on 27 February 2026, and the municipality had not announced a round for 2027 by 29 September 2026.

A registration fee, not a full bursary

The municipality’s notice, posted on 15 January 2026 and headed “Free Registration for 1st year undergraduates”, says it “can assist with registration fees” for first-year students accepted at a public university. Nothing in the notice mentions tuition, residence, meals, books or a monthly allowance, so students still need other funding for the rest of the year.

Enquiries are handled by the municipality’s Special Programmes Unit (SPU) section. The notice does not say how many students the municipality can help or how much it has budgeted.

Four conditions on the 2026 poster

1. The student is a first-time entering student who has been accepted at a public university for a first undergraduate qualification.
2. The household income is up to R4,400.
3. The household is registered on the municipal indigent list.
4. The student comes from a public school, or has proof of a scholarship form from high school, or a social worker’s report.

Private colleges and TVET colleges are not mentioned; the poster refers only to public universities. Being on the indigent list is a condition in its own right, separate from the income figure.

Papers to take to the Maggie-Tsiu Resha Building

The application form was not online. Students collected it at the municipality’s main office at 102 Main Street, Matatiele, or at the Maggie-Tsiu Resha Building in Mountain View, and handed the completed application in at the Maggie-Tsiu Resha Building. Every application had to be hand delivered, with copies carrying an original certification from an authorised institution. The poster listed:

• certified copies of both parents’ IDs, or an affidavit where there is only one parent or a guardian
• proof of income for both parents or the guardian, or an affidavit from unemployed parents explaining their source of income
• the matric certificate or statement of symbols
• the acceptance letter or proof of admission from the university
• proof of residence from the ward councillor
• the completed application form

Enquiries went to the SPU Section on 039 737 8217. The 2026 notice is on the Matatiele municipality website.

Other help for Matatiele students

Because the municipality pays only the registration fee, tuition and living costs have to come from elsewhere. The 2026 poster carried the NSFAS logo but did not explain any link between the two; NSFAS is a separate application, covered on our NSFAS application for 2027 page. The district municipality runs its own scheme, described on our Alfred Nzo District Municipality bursary page, and provincial options are gathered under Eastern Cape government bursaries.

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