Thuto Pele NPC

Thuto Pele NPC is a registered non-profit company established to provide educational upliftment to students from previously disadvantaged communities, in line with the goals of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. Thuto Pele means “education first” in Sesotho and Setswana.

Registered name

Thuto Pele NPC

Type

Non-profit company (education upliftment, shareholder in Plantech)

Fields funded

Final-year electrical, electronic, information and telecommunication engineering (past round)

An unusual structure

Thuto Pele is not a standalone donor. Thuto Pele is a shareholder in Plantech (Pty) Ltd, a professional consulting engineering firm specialising in project management and the design of electrical and mechanical engineering systems in the built environment, according to a provider record checked in August 2026. Empowerment shareholdings like this let a non-profit receive dividends from a company and use them for community benefit, and the link means Thuto Pele’s bursary was closely tied to Plantech’s talent needs.

The 2018 bursary

Thuto Pele’s only published bursary round offered up to R50 000 towards tuition and prescribed books for final-year students in telecommunication, information, electronic and electrical engineering. The round targeted black South African citizens at Tshwane University of Technology or the University of Pretoria with financial need and no other bursary or NSFAS funding. Bursars had to work for one year as an engineer-in-training for each year funded, and the round was linked to staffing the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 2 in 2019 and 2020.

Funding final-year students was a practical choice: it helped students finish their degrees and moved them quickly into project work.

No 2027 round

That round closed on 28 February 2018, and no later round has been advertised. BursariesAfrica found no website for Thuto Pele NPC when it checked on 15 September 2026. Students should not wait for this bursary to return.

What students should do instead

Final-year electrical and electronic engineering students with funding gaps should ask their university’s financial aid office about final-year bursaries and emergency funds, and apply to companies that fund senior students. Consulting engineering firms in building services, such as those designing electrical and mechanical systems for buildings, often recruit graduates as candidate engineers, so contact them about graduate programmes.

Past Thuto Pele bursars with questions about their contracts should contact Plantech directly.

Students who find old Thuto Pele adverts online should treat them as historical, and never send documents or money to contacts listed in copied adverts.

The Siemens bursary is open for 2027 electrical students.