VerifiedTown and regional planning is funded by the people who employ planners, and in South Africa that is mostly local government. Municipalities run bursaries for their own residents, the local government SETA funds the qualifications councils need, and the provincial departments that handle roads, human settlements and public works fund the rest.
It is also a regulated profession. Certain planning work can legally be reserved for registered planners, which makes the choice of qualification more important here than in most fields.
SACPLAN registration
The South African Council for Planners is the statutory council established under the Planning Profession Act, 2002, Act 36 of 2002. It administers the registration of planners, sets the criteria, process and fees, and has the authority to identify areas of planning work reserved for registered persons and to act against people who contravene the Act.
Check that your qualification is SACPLAN-accredited before you accept a place or a bursary. A planning qualification that does not lead to registration limits what work you may legally do. Confirmed on the SACPLAN site on 23 September 2026.
SACPLAN bursary
The SACPLAN bursary is the profession’s own scheme. It advertises mid-year for the following academic year rather than in the October to January window most bursaries use, and its last published advert closed on 16 August. Watch the council from about June.
LGSETA
The Local Government SETA funds the qualifications municipalities are short of, which includes planning alongside civil and electrical engineering, finance and auditing. It funds at N4 to N6 level as well as degrees, so it reaches TVET students that most schemes do not.
Its 2026 round opened in early November 2025 and closed at midnight on 28 November 2025, which is a short window. Diarise early November.
Municipal bursaries
These require residence in the municipality. The fields follow what the council needs, and planning appears on most of them because every municipality has a planning department.
| Municipality | Province | Last confirmed closing |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo City Metro | Eastern Cape | 31 October 2026 |
| George | Western Cape | 7 October 2026 |
| Drakenstein | Western Cape | 10 October 2025 |
| Cape Agulhas | Western Cape | 17 January 2025 |
| Mossel Bay | Western Cape | 25 November 2022 |
| Msunduzi | KwaZulu-Natal | Varies |
| Ndwedwe | KwaZulu-Natal | 22 December 2023 |
| Vhembe District | Limpopo | 24 January 2025 |
| Greater Letaba | Limpopo | 30 January 2026 |
| Ba-Phalaborwa | Limpopo | 30 November 2021 |
| Alfred Nzo District | Eastern Cape | 6 February 2026 |
Municipal rounds are short and are often advertised only at the civic centre or in a local paper. Phone the municipality in September and ask when the advert goes out, rather than waiting to see it.
Department bursaries
- The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport closes its external bursary on 30 October every year. Confirm with its human resources office that an external round is running before you hand anything in.
- The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements funds the built environment disciplines behind housing delivery. Its last round closed on 25 March 2026.
- The Eastern Cape Department of Public Works and Infrastructure closed on 20 January 2026.
- The Limpopo Department of Public Works funds the same disciplines for Limpopo students.
- The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent funds about seventy students a year in the built environment disciplines municipalities are short of. See also the Municipal Infrastructure Support Programme bursary.
- The national Department of Agriculture names town and regional planning in its call, because it employs planners for land reform and rural development work. It closes 30 September 2026.
Property and built environment bursaries
The South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners bursary funds the property disciplines that planning sits alongside. Applications for the 2027 academic year are open and close on 16 October 2026.
Planning students are also funded on the wider built environment calls. See our built environment bursaries, architecture bursaries and quantity surveying bursaries pages, and land surveying bursaries for the surveying route.
Qualifications funded
- BSc or BTRP in Town and Regional Planning. The degree that leads to SACPLAN registration.
- Urban and regional planning. The same field under a different name at several universities.
- Urban design and human settlements. Usually postgraduate, funded by the human settlements departments.
- Geographic information systems. Increasingly named on planning calls and funded on the data and surveying lists too.
- Building and town planning technician qualifications at N4 to N6. Funded by LGSETA and by most municipalities.
When to apply
| Period | Action |
|---|---|
| June – August | Watch SACPLAN, which advertises mid-year and has closed in mid-August. |
| September – October | Phone your municipality. George closes 7 October, SAIBPP 16 October, Gauteng Roads and Transport 30 October, Buffalo City 31 October. The Department of Agriculture closes 30 September. |
| November | LGSETA opens in early November and closes at the end of the month. Apply to NSFAS by 31 October. |
| January – March | The municipal rounds in Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape close, and Gauteng Human Settlements closes in March. |
See also our built environment bursaries page, government bursaries, and environmental bursaries, which planning overlaps on the impact assessment side.
