Sugar Industry Trust Fund for Education (SITFE)

The Sugar Industry Trust Fund for Education (SITFE) was launched in 1965 and is one of South Africa’s oldest education trust funds. The South African Sugar Association administers SITFE from Mount Edgecombe, KwaZulu-Natal, and SITFE has supported more than 10 200 students with bursaries, according to a provider record checked in August 2026.

Registered name

Sugar Industry Trust Fund for Education (SITFE)

Type

Non-profit education trust (sugar industry)

Fields funded

Agriculture, science and engineering

Website

sitfe.co.za

Email

bursaries@sasa.org.za

Phone

031 508 7034

Education in sugarcane communities

SITFE’s mission is to support sustainable, quality education in sugarcane-growing communities in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, where the sugar industry is often a dominant employer in rural areas. SITFE’s programmes include school support, study assistance, early childhood development and education centre development, and it has funded school buildings.

Trustees who serve without pay

Trustees manage SITFE out of goodwill and receive no income for their services. SITFE’s trustees include a corporate affairs executive from the sugar industry and an agricultural economist who joined the South African Cane Growers’ Association in 2009. One trustee describes being the son of an unskilled worker at the now-closed Entumeni Sugar Mill, who grew up in the factory compound and credits education with helping him overcome the hardships of that background.

Notable alumni

SITFE counts prominent South Africans among those it has assisted, including politician Blade Nzimande and doctor and politician Sibongiseni Dhlomo. SITFE says Zweli Mkhize and his wife, Dr May Mashego, also received help for their high school studies.

The study assistance programme

SITFE calls its study assistance programme the sugar industry’s flagship initiative to help government redress inequalities in science, agriculture and engineering. SITFE awards up to 41 full bursaries a year to high-potential learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. SITFE has shifted its strategy to fund missing-middle students from households earning R350 000 to R600 000, with preference for sugarcane farm workers’ children, and the last round funded agriculture at colleges such as Cedara.

SITFE states that its bursary does not have to be repaid, and no work-back applies. Applications open between July and October each year; the 2026 round closed on 21 November 2025.

How to research SITFE

Check whether you live in a qualifying sugarcane area and gather proof of household income, since the income band decides eligibility. Mention any family link to the sugar industry.

See also the Illovo Sugar bursary.