JOHANNESBURG South Africa has eight of the top 15 universities in Africa but its higher learning institutions are rated as the worst performing among the BRICS emerging market nations, two separate reports released this week said. A study released by Times Higher Education rated the University of Cape Town as Africa’s premier institution followed by University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. But South Africa was ranked last in the World Economic Forum’s 2015 report on the quality of maths and science education and 139th out of 143 countries in the overall quality of its education system.