The North West Office of the Premier in Mahikeng runs the province’s main bursary scheme, renamed the Victor Thebe Sifora Provincial Bursary in June 2022 in honour of a North West teacher, school principal and liberation activist. The scheme pays for full-time study at public universities and colleges for South African youth who live in North West. The Office of the Premier gives priority to undergraduates who are financially needy and doing well academically.
The scheme is large. At a meeting with graduates in February 2026, the Office of the Premier put the total at about 4,870 bursaries worth R405 million since the scheme began, with 161 students funded in the 2025 academic year.
Where the 2027 call stands
The last call, for the 2026 academic year, closed online on 20 November 2025. No 2027 advert had surfaced by 2 October 2026: the North West government’s bursary portal would not load from our side, and the Office of the Premier’s news page had no bursary notice. If the pattern holds, the next call should appear on the North West Provincial Government bursary portal, which is also where you apply.
Each provincial department chooses its own fields
Unlike schemes with one scarce-skills list, the Victor Thebe Sifora advert groups qualifications under the department that wants them, and the form warns that applications for unlisted programmes won’t be processed. The 2026 list included:
- Public Works and Roads: civil and mechanical engineering, quantity surveying, architecture, construction management, property studies and conveyancing, landscaping, town planning.
- Health: medicine (MBChB), dentistry and dental therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy, audiology, radiography, dietetics, clinical psychology, orthotics and prosthetics.
- Education: BEd for the Foundation Phase in Setswana, and Intermediate, Senior and FET phase teaching in maths, sciences, technical subjects, Setswana and English.
- Agriculture and Rural Development: veterinary science, agricultural economics and agricultural science.
- Office of the Premier and Provincial Treasury: public administration, statistics, IT and cyber security, GIS, economics, accounting, forensic auditing and municipal finance.
- Arts and Culture, Social Development, Human Settlements, COGTA, Community Safety and the economic development department: sign language, translation, film and media, library and archival studies, disaster management, law, ecology, hydrology, anthropology, electrical engineering and more.
Check the exact qualification name against the new advert when it appears, because departments change their lists from year to year.
Proof of residence: the North West rule that trips people up
North West wants a letter, not a bill. If you live in a village, get a letter from the Traditional Authority office; if you live in a town, township or on a farm, get one from the municipal offices. The advert states plainly that a statement of account, such as a water bill, is not accepted.
The other uploads on the 2026 call were:
- The bursary application form, completed in full
- A certified copy of your ID
- A certified copy of your matric results; the matric certificate itself is compulsory for every applicant
- Certified end-of-year or latest results if you are already at a university or college
- A certified acceptance letter from the institution
- Payslips for your parents or guardian, or a death certificate or affidavit if a parent has died or is unemployed
Inside the Victor Thebe Sifora form
The form asks you to tick your district municipality (Ngaka Modiri Molema, Bojanala, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati or Dr Kenneth Kaunda), your local municipality and ward, and whether you live in a village, township, town or on a farm. A household section collects total family income and how many dependants are at school or studying. The last section asks why you chose your field and what you would change in your North West community as the first person there to qualify in it, so think those answers through before you start.
The Office of the Premier does not send regret letters. On the 2026 call, silence after March 2026 meant the application had failed. For enquiries the advert lists 018 388 1259, 018 388 1207, 018 388 1510 and 018 388 1099.
To see how other provinces structure their schemes, compare the KwaZulu-Natal provincial bursaries and the Gauteng City Region Academy bursary, or browse all government bursaries.