Internationalisation of the higher education sector across the world has become the norm and this is also true for South African universities. Another dimension has with increasing intension moved into the foreground, namely the need to Africanise South African higher education. The imperatives of these two dimensions are often portrayed as polarised positions and it is thus perceived that the one negates the benefits of the other. This article argues that compatibility exists between internationalisation and Africanisation of higher education in South Africa. To substantiate this argument, the conceptualisation of internationalisation and the Africanising of South African higher education, from selected literature, is presented. Subsequently, it is shown why these two conceptualisations could be perceived as contradictory to each other, and hence some touch points for finding compatibility between them are identified. Some pointers for further research are also indicated.