Wits University announced on October 20, 2022, that a national consortium led by Professor Andrew Forbes had secured R54 million (approximately USD 3 million) in funding from the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) to coordinate the South African Quantum Technology Initiative (SA QuTI). The DSI committed this first tranche of funding to run until March 2025.
Funding was directed toward establishing quantum nodes at five centers: Wits University, the University of Zululand, Stellenbosch University, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Forbes, who co-drafted the national initiative document adopted by government in 2021, said the national project would focus on quantum software and applications rather than building quantum computer hardware, which he described as where South Africa could “play a strategic role in the international quantum community.”