He told graduates wasteful expenditure and government corruption were placing a further strain on the national fiscus and that President Jacob Zuma and his executive had failed students.
UCT was hit by protests earlier this year, led by students calling for government to scrap tertiary education fees.
Pityana warned that implementing free higher education could result in further regression of the system.
He said the public purse had to respond to other social needs such as grants, health and housing.
“These constraints are compounded by avoidable leakage of public money through wasteful expenditure, mismanagement and corruption that has escalated to endemic proportions.”
Pityana added there had been no attempt to put an end to the wastage.
“In the face of this, with the president leading the charge in enabling the looting, it’s hard to convince anyone that these legitimate social infrastructure demands, including free education, cannot be met.”
