Hub Johannesburg
South Africa

The New Spot for Global Connection

Get to know KLU’s Africa hub in Johannesburg, one of the continent’s leading business and financial centers and a strategic gateway to African markets. From here, we coordinate and expand our activities across Africa, fostering academic partnerships, industry collaboration, and educational opportunities. For people, it is the place to prepare to lead in supply chain management with an operations mindset; for companies, it is a partner for talent and new ideas.

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Welcome to KLU Johannesburg

KLU’s Africa hub in Johannesburg serves as the strategic center for coordinating and expanding the university’s activities across the continent, paving the way for KLU’s fourth campus worldwide. Johannesburg is the largest city in Gauteng, a province considered the economic epicenter of Africa’s business. O.R. Tambo International Airport, close to the city, handles about 87 percent of South Africa’s international airfreight according to industry figures, and a dense road network connects the city with the rest of the country.

With active campuses in Hamburg and Saigon and one in development in Bogotá, KLU thus rounds out its international presence, reaching the African continent. In Johannesburg, KLU extends its academic offer to Southern Africa, with English-language programs in logistics, business, and leadership. With this campus, we expand the possibilities of international collaboration and partnerships in our areas of expertise.

Life in Johannesburg

Johannesburg is the most populated city in South Africa and a traditional hub of trade since the 19th century. Sitting on land rich in minerals and gold, the logistics sector of Johannesburg is inherent to its origins and growth. The growing demand for higher education, unmatched by the public offer, has made the need for private universities clear.

Johannesburg’s culture is closely tied to its history. Soweto, one of the suburbs, offers visits to sites such as the Hector Pieterson Museum, and the city’s museums trace the history of South Africa. The arts scene is equally lively, with international artists performing on local stages and festivals such as the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz. The culinary scene delights all kinds of palates. Beyond the traditional South African cuisine (such as shisa nyama or chakalaka), restaurants feature Ethiopian, Turkish, Indian, Italian, and Portuguese-Mozambican dishes. Wine is also a major appeal, with a growing number of modern, boutique, and black-owned wine labels settling into the city.

The altitude keeps the climate moderate, and much of daily life moves outdoors. The City of Johannesburg highlights parks, walking trails, gardens, and panoramic views, and the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens in Emmarentia and The Wilds nature reserve in Houghton offer quiet retreats. For day trips, the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 50 kilometers northwest of the city, includes the Sterkfontein Caves and the Maropeng Visitor Centre.

New Hub, Same Mission: Empowering Future Leaders in Southern Africa

KLU has strengthened its presence in Africa through its growing hub in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Founded in 2010, KLU’s vision is to provide the world’s best leadership and management education, firmly rooted in an operations mindset. To accomplish this mission in Africa, Johannesburg offers KLU a strong starting point. South Africa is classified by the World Bank as an upper-middle-income economy, with established universities and research institutions, and its airports, ports, and road network connect inland industry to global trade. All in all, these traits provide a solid setting for KLU’s research, teaching, and collaboration in logistics, supply chain management, and leadership in the region.

Johannesburg serves as an academic and industry anchor for KLU’s engagement with the wider African logistics landscape. South Africa’s retail sector, e-commerce fulfillment, and energy and transport constraints create applied learning contexts for our programs in supply chain management and business, where students can test what they learn in class against real operating conditions.

Hamburg is Germany's logistics capital and one of Europe's key freight crossroads, and that is where KLU originated. Its expertise in logistics and supply chain runs through all the study programs, keeping an operations-oriented focus on real businesses. Several awards and accreditations confirm the quality of education, including the AACSB accreditation, which places KLU among the top 5% of business schools worldwide. Among our 100+ partner institutions, we cooperate with key African higher education actors such as Stellenbosch University in South Africa – with which we run our Tricontinental Track for the Global Logistics study program –, Strathmore University in Kenya, and Rabat Business School in Morocco, facilitating international exchange and research collaboration.

Behind KLU stands the Kühne Foundation, which has spent half a century working for the common good in four fields: logistics, climate, medicine, and culture. KLU is the flagship of the foundation's logistics commitment and helps move economic and social progress forward through research, teaching, and logistics expertise.

We would welcome the chance to team up with local universities, companies, and public institutions that share our goal: giving students the best possible study experience and developing leaders with a strong operations mindset across Southern Africa.

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Our Vision at a Glance

Contribute to local and regional capacity building in logistics and supply chain management in Southern Africa.
Strengthen logistics and supply chain management competencies and skills for the regional industry and corporate sector.
Generate and enhance research-based knowledge transfer in logistics, operations, and supply chain management.

Collaboration Potential for Corporates

Cooperate on executive education and continuous learning opportunities within the logistics sector and beyond.
Engage in scientific research and outreach activities that bridge academia and the corporate world.

Building on Our Commitment to Africa

For more than a decade, Kühne Logistics University (KLU) has worked across Africa to strengthen logistics and supply chains where they matter most. Our cooperation spans diverse projects in areas such as logistics education, humanitarian logistics, disaster preparedness, food and agricultural supply chains, and health supply systems. Applied research is at the heart of this work, providing evidence that helps local and regional organizations plan, coordinate, and act more effectively. In turn, this research strengthens institutions and supply systems across the continent, creating lasting value for the communities they serve.

CHORD:

Food, health and sustainability at the core of research.

HELP Logistics:

Developing more effective humanitarian supply chains.

LEARN Logistics:

Creating economic development through logistics education.

Tricontinental Track: Global Logistics With Regional Perspectives

KLU's next endeavor in South Africa is a cooperation with Stellenbosch University, joining our campuses in Hamburg and Saigon in the Tricontinental Track of our Master's in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management (starting in September 2027). This is one connected learning journey across Germany (Europe), South Africa (Africa), and Vietnam (Asia), where students study how logistics connects on a global scope and how each market faces different challenges of infrastructure, regulation, sustainability, and local business realities.

Tricontinental Track Apply now

Fostering South African Talent Across Borders

Meet Bili Ntuli, an Olympic South African field-hockey player who brought his athletic dreams and his passion for business to KLU. He balanced his studies in business administration with his Olympic training for Paris 2024, fulfilling both his commitment to sports and his educational goals. Discover the journey that brought him to a successful career in sports finance.