PhD for as little as $1290,66 p/a at a top 150 school.

[Personherebb9]

As a South African, I felt like it is my moral obligation to inform everyone on this Forum of how cheap South African postgrad qualifications are.

Here's a few pros of doing your postgrad degree through a South African University.
1) According to South African policy in regards to Higher Education, the minimum period of study towards a masters is 1 year, with a recommendation of 2 years (PhD minimum: 2 years, recommended: 4 years). Meaning you are able to complete your entire masters, start to finish, in one year, compared to two years for a standard masters in the US (PhD 2 years.).
2) COST: Just to give you an idea the TOTAL COST to finish an ENTIRE (may vary depending on the years you take to complete) PhD at UNISA (University of South Africa) is R27 250 P/A or equivalent to $1504,94. And no I did not mistype that. Masters are also very cheap compared to American standards. (The average cost of a PhD in the USA is between $28 000 and $55 000 P/A) https://www.idp.com/middleeast/study-in-...university.
3) South African public universities are the foreign equivalent to RA universities in America. (Any UNI recognized by CHE).

Here's a list of Universities I would recommend (from knowing the reputation of the Universities.)
1a) UCT: Here are some rankings: (1st in Africa); (THE: 160th world ranking); (QS: 237th world ranking); (US news & world reports: 109th world ranking);(Center for World University Rankings: 270th world ranking); (ShanghaiRanking's; 201-300 world ranking)
1b)UCT is widely regarded (at least in Africa) to be the "Harvard" of the Southern Hemisphere. UCT has a p/a cost of R23 370 or the equivalent to $1290,66 for a PhD, just to put finances into perspective. 
1c) UCT, however does not offer online degrees (only short courses). For that cost though, I would consider doing a year abroad to study so cheaply at a Top international school.
1d) Link- https://uct.ac.za/
2) Stellenbosch University (Similar rankings to UCT, known for also having the world's best choir)- No online programs
3) University of Witwatersrand (WITS)- No online programs
4) UNISA, Public University that does offer Online Degrees as mentioned before. (UNISA also follows a system for Recognition of Prior Learning).

Feel free to ask me any questions.

Other than unisa, what other 
South Africa institutions offer online education to non-south Africans?

As mentioned somewhere on this thread. All South African PUBLIC universities are "related", they all work with each other (I think there is only like 14/15ish) through CHE (Council of Higher Education). For the most part CHE has tried to maintain online degrees through UNISA exclusively. This is mostly because it is much easier to regulate the online academic integrity of these online degrees, if they only have to worry about one university supplying them. Please note that UNISA, while they offer MANY online programs, is not exclusively an online university such as Excelsior, TESU, COSC, etc. But they do also offer in-person classes in lectures if you wanted to explore in-person or blended learning through them. 

Universities such University of Pretoria offers a few postgraduate diplomas online, UCT offers a few short courses and diplomas online, but other than that online degrees are mostly kept under UNISA. There are a few online PRIVATE universities, however I would NOT recommend attending them. While they hold the same accreditation as public universities, they are definitely frowned down upon and not respected, they are also SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive. We like to call them "Buy-my-degree" institutions. The only private university I could consciously recommend is IIE MSA, while they hold CHE accreditation and are registered with SAQA, they follow the British degree system, it is unclear whether or not their degrees can be completed online, however it is known for IIE schools usually offer distance learning options. (They offer up to masters level.)

If you're looking at cheap alternatives and don't want to consider UNISA, I would recommend looking towards Europe, however many European countries often still charge international students a lot. The only one I could really suggest is (IU) International University of Applied Sciences (Germany), they offer up to masters, with distance education options. IDK what the tuition would be as an American, but as a South African we get discounted tuition.