Ramaphosa did so despite earlier attempts by the Democratic Alliance and trade union Solidarity to prevent the implementation of two contentious clauses of the Act.

“The GNU clearing house participants agreed that the Act should be fully implemented. This view was endorsed by the leaders of the parties to the GNU in a meeting I held with them,” Ramaphosa said.

“I accordingly advised them that I would proceed to sign a presidential proclamation to bring the Basic Education Law Amendment Act, the BelaAct, into operation,” Ramaphosa said. 

The Act, one of the most significant changes in education law since the dawn of democracy, was initially signed into law by Ramaphosa on September 13. He its implementation was delayed by three months to allow for further discussions on sections 4 and 5 of the Act. 

Section 4 of the Bela bill gives the department of basic education greater control over admissions policy. In contrast, section 5 compels the school governing body to submit the school’s language policy to the provincial head of department for approval.

The Act, opposed by the DA and Solidarity since its draft proposal, accused the ANC of “violating the constitutional rights of parents and governing bodies in functional schools”.

The Bela Act suggests strengthening oversight of school governing bodies.

To reach a consensus on the Act, a clearing house Mechanism task team was established with GNU members – DA, FF-Plus, GOOD and the ANC. 

Following the final sign off of the Act, the DA’s John Steenhuisen said the party is “satisfied” with the outcome of the negotiations.

Steenhuisen said the process agreed upon was a “a win-win compromise that enables the Bela Act to be implemented without undermining existing constitutional rights to mother tongue education.”

However, the DA  “remains determined to defend the existing right to mother-tongue education and expand it to increasing numbers of learners in South Africa”.

In a statement, basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube confirmed that her department will implement the Act with the “support of the national regulations, policy and standards [document which will be] developed, publicly scrutinised and finalised in the best interest of the learner.” 

Once the document is drafted there will be a public participation process before implementing the Act. 

The Bill was passed in the National Assembly on 16 May 2024, with 223 votes in favour and 78 votes against.

The Act introduces grade R as the new compulsory school-starting age; upholds undocumented children’s right to basic education; enhances the role of oversight by the head of the department and reaffirms the illegality of corporal punishment. 

The bill also calls for jail time — from six to 12 months — for anyone who prevents a child from attending school without good reason.

The recently released 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found that key initiatives the department of basic education has incorporated “such as no-fee schools, scholar transport, and school nutrition programmes have significantly contributed to enhancing accessibility”.

The study was conducted in the fourth and eighth grades in 64 countries. South Africa, Morocco and Ivory Coast were the only African countries to participate in the evaluation. 

The country’s net enrollment ratio is 93% at primary school and 92% at secondary school level. The study did not reveal a student-teacher ratio for primary schools, but in secondary schools it noted a 28% ratio. 

According to the latest data released by education institution Mancosa, the average student-to-teacher ratio in South Africa is 32:1 — with an even higher ratio in provinces such as the Eastern Cape.

The study found that learners who speak one of the nine indigenous African languages at home have a twofold disadvantage. 

“Not only do they start studying in an unfamiliar language in fourth grade, usually English, but they also tend to come from socio-economically disadvantaged homes with lower incomes,” it said.

Upon review of the school system, using English or Afrikaans to teach maths and science in upper primary and lower secondary grades “complicates matters when the learner is not used to speaking either of those languages”. 

This has contributed to a barrier to understanding complex concepts in a second language, “which historically has been identified as a factor contributing to low academic performance in South Africa”.

Based on the newly signed Basic Education Law Amendment (Bela) Act, more control of school language policies could shift from school governing bodies to provincial education departments, to promote multilingualism and inclusivity. 

The study said South Africa’s introduction of literacy programmes that align with the needs of the 21st century workspace is a significant manifestation of the Integrated National Mathematics, Science and Technology Strategy — expected to be phased out between 2019 and 2030. The strategy includes a coding and robotics curriculum that has been developed and is being implemented for grades R to 9.

Marine sciences, a subject integrating oceanography, marine biology, environmental

science, and the relationships between humans and the ocean, was introduced in

2019 and has seen a twelvefold increase in learner participation at grade 12 since 2021.

Education activist Hendrick Makaneta has commended South Africa for demonstrating a commitment to improving maths and science education. 

“While South Africa still ranks near the bottom compared to other participating countries, the department of education’s proactive stance on using these results to shape a targeted program of action is commendable,” Makaneta told the Mail & Guardian. 

South Africa’s education system has been ranked low in international comparisons.

In 2023, the country placed 41st in the world in the Best Countries education system report on 78 countries.

In 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reported that South Africa’s maths and science education was among the worst in the world.

The former international relations and cooperation minister, who has also served as minister of science and technology, said several universities could lose funding after severing ties with Israeli institutions and urged the South African government to offer financial support.

Pandor told the Science Forum South Africa in Pretoria last week that the sector was not immune to the impact of the toxic geopolitical environment.

“South Africa’s support for the struggle for [Palestinian] sovereignty has resulted in some key research initiatives that rely on international funding facing the threat of funds being withdrawn,” she said.

“This is reportedly happening to universities that have decided not to pursue links with institutions in Israel that have links to the military actions in Palestine.”

Pandor, who retired in June, said the department of science, technology and innovation must give attention to the impact of the withdrawal of funds on institutions and researchers and support them in identifying alternative resources.

The department co-hosted the Science Forum with the Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa initiative, under the theme Igniting Conversations about Science — Innovation and Science for Humanity.

Pandor called for the event to be more than “a mere talk shop”, urging delegates: “It must play a full role in advancing African capabilities and ensuring that Africa rising becomes a reality and not a populist slogan.”

Universities South Africa, the country’s representative body for 26 vice-chancellors at public institutions, confirmed that at least one university had experienced funding cuts over its stance on Gaza, without elaborating. It declined to comment further, saying the matter still had to be discussed among vice-chancellors and that each institution could speak for itself on its position.

Salim Vally, a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg, said that any donors threatening to withdraw funds were indulging in academic blackmail.

“Universities must not be deterred and should remain true to their mission, which must be an ethical commitment to seeking the truth, social justice, human rights, anti-racism, solidarity and knowledge that benefits humanity,” he said.

“This is one of the ideals of knowledge for the public good.”

Vally believes Israel’s assault on Gaza, where all universities have been bombed and more than 12 000 students, plus scores of faculty members, have been killed, is a litmus test for all intellectuals, academics and university management.

He described as “cowardice” the refusal of some universities to take a stand against Israel and applauded Pandor’s attempts to mitigate any loss of funding from those that do.

“Taking a principled stand often comes with sacrifice,” added Vally, who is also a prominent human rights activist.

“South Africans who fought against our erstwhile apartheid regime and who called on the world to boycott apartheid state institutions know this well.”

Israel has faced an unprecedented academic boycott since it launched its war on Gaza in October last year, which has killed more than 44 500 Palestinians. A growing number of European universities are among those taking action.

Earlier this year, the International Science Council (ISC) updated its position on academic boycotts, described as a collective protest by an academic community or institution to express disapproval of other academics or institutions, or to put pressure on them to meet demands.

“The ISC, as a general principle, does not endorse academic boycotts,” the statement said, citing article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its own Principles of Freedom and Responsibility in Science.

“Exceptions to the general principle will be considered by the ISC governing board when there are clear and systemic violations of human rights,” it added.

This story was produced by SciDev.Net’s Global desk.

“No legal basis currently exists to terminate the BNC [Blue Network Consortium] contract … Therefore the [department] will continue to honour the contract unless and until valid and substantiated reasons exist to take steps to set the contract aside,” the Western Cape government’s legal adviser, Ian Steyn, told parliament’s portfolio committee on basic education. 

The tender was for work to expand internet services in Western Cape schools.

In March 2023, the Sita wrote to the Western Cape education department recommending that the tender be awarded to Blue Networks Consortium. According to Steyn, the department then conducted an internal process and awarded the tender bid to the consortium on 19 May 2023 for a maximum of R900 million.

But, five months after the contract was awarded, the Sita provided the department with a copy of a report by forensic law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) into irregularities in the Sita procurement process.

The department appointed senior counsel to consider the findings, who said “none of the conclusions in the CDH report demonstrated any reviewable irregularities in the procurement process”.

The Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr report flagged irregularities such as the submission of two pricing options by Blue Networks Consortium and the disqualification of Dimension Data and the Sita board’s process for approving the recommendation for tenders.

“The decision to evaluate both price proposals submitted by Blue Networks and Infrastructure rendered the tender process unfair, as the Request for Bid was unclear on whether bidders were allowed to submit more than one pricing option,” said Tendai Jangara, a director and lead of the corporate investigations team at the law firm.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr concluded that the process and awarding of the tender was “unfair and uncompetitive” because bidders were not evaluated on an equal footing. 

The provincial government has rejected the findings and said it had “no adverse implications” on the education department’s mandate. 

But the Sita’s Luvuyo Keyise called for the intervention of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to dig deeper into the matter. 

“It might be best that the SIU looks deeper into this because the current contract is continuing and one would not be surprised if anything around 50% of the contracted value would have been paid by now,” said Keyise.

But, in response to the application, the Gauteng education department said it had “no duty” to provide early childhood development centres to underage children.

The Equal Education bid is the second part of an application against the department over its failure to provide school placements for learners affected by the fire that engulfed the Usindiso building in Marshalltown, Johannesburg, last year, killing 77 people. 

A commission of inquiry launched to establish the cause of the fire found that the relocation of many families forced children to leave their school. Sixty learners remain in limbo in that regard.

The first part of the application — which Equal Education launched in October and is being supported by the parents of affected children — was heard last week in the Johannesburg high court. It seeks to declare the Gauteng education department’s failure to place the learners into school as “unconstitutional”. 

“In the Constitution, it says that everyone has a right to a basic education. And our argument now with these circumstances [is that] that this basis should mean or extend to be inclusive of early childhood development,” Equal Education Law Centre attorney Yolisa Piliso told the Mail & Guardian with regard to the second part of the application.

Responding to the court application, the Gauteng department said its education MEC “has no duty to place children who are below the compulsory school-going age”.

“As such the parents of children below school-going age are encouraged to enrol their children at any registered ECD centre,” the department’s response to Equal Education’s court application dated October 2024 reads.

It added that in South Africa “the provisioning of early childhood education is done by private providers, government’s role is to coordinate, regulate and support”.

The department said of the 17 families that the Equal Education Law Centre application makes mention of, “parents were not keen to place their children in ECD centres”.

Piliso said Equal Education would challenge the department’s decision on the basis that early childhood development “benefits the child”.  

“We understand the importance of access to any childhood development [centre] as part of the biggest milestone, or a cornerstone of access to learning,” he said.

In 2022, the government transferred responsibility for all ECD functions to the national department of basic education to try to strengthen the early childhood development system which “encompasses the critical period from birth to five years of age”. 

In its application the Equal Education Law Centre also seeks to amend the Gauteng admission regulation and the national admission policy to make provisions for learners to access education in times of emergencies, again using the example of Usindiso.

“Despite knowing children were out of school, the Gauteng government has failed to create any meaningful plans to address this crisis,” Piliso in a statement. 

The Gauteng department’s admissions regulations make no mention of emergency provisions for learners. 

Piliso said the court had given the department 60 days to “report on the progress that they have made around the placement”. 

Responding to queries from the M&G, the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas) said it empathised with the Usindiso learners and that case law would determine the outcome of the case.

“There is no right to attend an ECD centre, but if promises were made, then there is an obligation to fulfill them,” Fedsas chief executive Jaco Deacon said.

The Gauteng department had not responded to questions from the M&G by the time of publication.

The planetarium is now a high-tech immersive auditorium, with 10 digital projectors to give a full dome resolution. The sound in the Digital Dome has also been upgraded to an 8.2-channel audio system.

“We have created a high-tech 360 immersive experience,” said Moumita Aich, the head of the dome. 

“We don’t just want it to be used for astronomy — humanities students can use it for their projects and tech companies can show us their innovations, so that’s the goal once it’s opened.”

The dome, which was opened in 1960, has over the years projected significant historical events, including being the first venue in South Africa to screen footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. It also introduced the annual “Star of Bethlehem” show in 1974. 

When the planetarium was built, it housed a Zeiss projector, which was used to train pilots and sailors in celestial navigation before and during World War II.

The revamped dome will serve as a visualisation theatre, laboratory, teaching venue and collaborative research space for various scientific disciplines. It will also host public shows including scientific documentaries to 360-degree animated shows to entertain adults and children.

It is expected to open to the public in February 2025 after a pilot phase with Wits students and staff from November to January.

South Africa is home to the biggest planetariums in Africa such as the Iziko Planetarium and the Digital Dome in Cape Town’s Company Gardens. The Cape Town planetarium has a 15.2 metre dome and can seat 144 people.  In 2017, it underwent an R30 million upgrade after 31 years to keep up with the rapid growth of technology. 

The Naval Hill Planetarium in the Franklin Game Reserve in Bloemfontein is the first digital planetarium in sub-Saharan Africa.

Director general Mathanzima Mweli said this during a parliamentary select committee meeting on Tuesday, which focused on school infrastructure projects, including facilities for children with special needs.

KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of schools either built or renovated, with three projects completed, followed by Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, which each built one school. 

The Western Cape infrastructure department delivered 39 schools in the same period.

This is a significant decline compared to a decade ago when, in the 2014-15 financial year, the department completed 32 schools in the Eastern Cape, 24 in Gauteng, 19 in Mpumalanga, 12 in KwaZulu-Natal, and 13 in Limpopo.

Underspending across provinces

Provincial underspending on infrastructure remains a critical issue. The Eastern Cape was allocated R1.8 billion for the 2024-25 financial year and had spent 70% of its budget.

Limpopo fared worse, spending just 41% of its R1.5 billion allocation as of mid-November.

Mweli confirmed that the department would continue redirecting funds from provinces failing to use their allocations effectively. 

“EIG [education infrastructure grant] is no longer battling like it used to battle before. If provinces don’t spend, we take their money [and] redirect them to provinces that are overheating. So that’s the principle that we are adopting,” he said.

Overcrowded classrooms and budget constraints

Efforts to address overcrowded classrooms have also faltered. The department piloted a programme to build additional classrooms, but budget cuts forced it to halt many of the projects.

“We had initially planned to deal with 30 overcrowded schools, but because of budget cuts, the money got reduced, and we had to stop some of the projects,” said Mweli. “That’s why in this financial year it will only be one school because that’s [the] budget that is available.”

Pit latrines

Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube reaffirmed her commitment to clearing the backlog of school pit latrines by March next year.

The backlog includes toilets identified in 2018 as part of the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative, one of the projects spearheaded by President Cyril Ramaphosa when he first assumed office.

These ablutions would take preference, said Gwarube, while other pit latrines identified during the course of audits would then be attended to.

“The target is to make sure that, although that backlog is cleared by the end of March 2025, it does not mean that upon further analysis or an audit, we won’t find more.”

She emphasised the need for ongoing audits to identify and address newly reported pit latrines.

According to Amnesty International, more than 3,900 illegal pit toilets remain in South African schools. 

Consolidating infrastructure grants

To tackle the infrastructure backlogs, the treasury has proposed merging the school backlog infrastructure grant with the education infrastructure grant.

The education infrastructure grant will fall under provincial control, while the school infrastructure backlog grant will remain with the department for targeted interventions where provinces fail to meet infrastructure needs.

Of the R1.6 billion allocated to the department for the 2024-25 financial year, R1.2 billion has already been spent, with several projects ongoing.

“Which means that the system is already overheating, [while we are] still left with about four months towards the end of the financial year,” said Mweli.

The learners, who will undertake their final drone assessments after completing their national senior certificate examinations on 28 November, are the first cohort of a three-year drone academy programme at the Katlehong Engineering School. 

It is part of an array of initiatives aimed at priming the township’s children to matriculate with additional accreditation and sought-after technical skills.

Drones, officially known as unmanned aerial vehicles, are specialised aircraft with no human pilots, crew or passengers on board. 

“Because the content of the course is so advanced, and the learners have normal schoolwork to do, we had to divide the drone curriculum, meaning the 12 learners began the programme in their grade 10 year,” explained Jaco Opperman, the school principal. 

The programme is run in conjunction with Cranfield Aviation Training in Johannesburg’s Fourways suburb while the Katlehong school waits to receive its accreditation from the South African Civil Aviation Authority to do its industry-recognised practicals without an external body. 

Outside of the school, Cranfield charges people nearly R24  000 for a 10-day course that includes theory and practical lessons to acquire a pilot licence.

“We are waiting for the 12 learners to complete their grade 12 exams before they can go for their final practicals because you must be 18 years old to receive a drone-flying licence,” said Opperman, who has been the school principal since July 2015. 

Rantsani Bogopa, the deputy principal, said the school’s leadership identified a teacher among the staff to receive training and get recognition by the civil aviation authority as a drone flying instructor. 

“One of the requirements of becoming a school of specialisation is the upskilling of employees. So, we take that very seriously,” Bogopa said. 

“Unless it is necessary, we do not like going out there to find people to run our initiatives for us — we have capable people right here who just need the correct training.”

The Katlehong school is one of 35 schools of specialisation in Gauteng offering specialties such as maths, science, information and communication technology, engineering, commerce, entrepreneurship, arts and sports.

It was launched by now premier Panyaza Lesufi during his tenure from 2014 to 2022 as member of the provincial executive council responsible for education. 

For Opperman’s school the main focus — among a host of other technical disciplines — is to produce electrical, mechanical and civil engineers, including industrial and production engineering and physical engineering science technicians, all of which form part of the top 10 scarce skills in South Africa.

The specialisation school also has certification from the Institute of Plumbing South Africa to conduct trade tests for learners so that they can leave as accredited plumbers. 

It is a model followed in all technical fields offered in Katlehong, with 73 former learners currently serving apprenticeships to become mechanical engineers at major dealerships, including Mercedes-Benz. 

“We have a relationship with Mercedes-Benz and our learners service cars at those dealerships. We log their hours so that, when they leave school, they cut the time to become mechanical engineers from 48 months to 30 months,” Opperman said.

Multinational energy and electrical engineering firm Actom is also a partner at the school, providing a weekend maths and science curriculum to learners from grades 9 to 12, who are chosen to participate, based on their marks. 

This year, 20 learners who matriculated last year began their apprenticeships with the company at its facility in Germiston, Ekurhuleni. 

Grade 9 pupil Enzokuhle Unam Ngcaku is part of Actom’s weekend maths class, and wants to become an aircraft mechanic after finding out about the profession during a career day at his school earlier this year. 

“I will do a three-year course to reach my goal, the last two years will be a paid apprenticeship, instead of the four-year undergraduate degree offered in university,” said the 15-year-old.

An example of companies recognising the importance of helping young people in trades is the recently launched Allan Gray Makers StartUp Academy, which wants to give entrepreneurial skills to plumbers and electricians aged 18 to 35. The academy is a subsidiary of financial services firm Allan Gray. 

“We believe that entrepreneurship is a powerful driver of economic growth and job creation,” says Palesa Mofokeng, the recruitment and selection manager at Allan Gray Makers, which closes its applications on 31 January.

Lesufi said this drive to move learners away from a heavy focus on academics was the reason for launching advanced schools mainly in townships.

“Recent statistics show that 85% of matric learners go to universities after completing their matric and become academics. Schools of specialisation will change that,” Lesufi said in September 2022, as he wrapped up his tenure as education MEC.

“Learners in such schools will be able to either work immediately at industry-leading companies, or they will embark on entrepreneurship and start their own businesses.”

This week, Opperman said the entrepreneurial aspect formed an important part of his school, including a chicken farm with 1 840 hens producing about 70 trays of eggs a day. 

The agricultural technology learners are responsible for feeding the hens, filling the coops with grain in the mornings and early and late afternoons, as well as cleaning the commercial spaces “because they have to learn responsibility”, the principal said.

“We wanted the school to focus on entrepreneurship, so we introduced project-based learning — focusing on the practical aspects of education because learners enjoy that more,” he added.

“The learners are involved in the sorting, the packing, the marketing and the selling of the eggs. Remember, this is a no-fee-paying school, so this is a way to raise funds for the school.” 

The school repurposed an old building into an air-conditioned office where the egg-selling operation is run, with only card payments or electronic fund transfers accepted on the premises.

Moreover, learners grow vegetables used in their feeding scheme programme. The main crop is spinach.

A tour by the Mail & Guardian showed the use of technology such as the hydroponic system of planting.

The school was also installing a dripping system in its agricultural section as part of innovative ways of growing crops, this time using buckets to produce green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers, among other vegetables.

“There is a skill when it comes to growing cucumbers — you must control the environment and the temperature inside [the greenhouse], otherwise it tends to grow skew and you cannot sell it to the market,” Opperman explained. 

Abri Herbst, a teacher and head of agricultural technology at the school, was getting his hands dirty preparing the greenhouse for the new planting technology during the M&G’s visit.

But it is the community outreach projects that the school especially takes pride in, such as availing its driving school facilities — set up to ensure that learners leave school with a driver’s licence — to Katlehong residents, especially young people, free of charge.

“It’s an old saying, but I really believe that sharing is caring,” Opperman said. 

The school owns a registered driving truck and a driving simulator machine, which is where the learners begin their lessons before moving on to the code 10 truck. 

“I don’t want my children to crash any of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles when they are doing their apprenticeships. A driving licence — basically a competent driver — has become a necessity when you go into the job market,” Opperman added. 

“I want my children to leave here with added advantages for them to be competitive in their adult years.” 

A native of Ekurhuleni, having grown up in the city’s suburbs towards the end of apartheid, Opperman is adamant that he is as much a member of Katlehong as its mainly black residents, saying that he loves the area and wants to see all its schools thrive. 

It is a township beset with educational problems. The M&G reported in February about how the Kwa-Dukathole Comprehensive School “squandered” R10  million in government funding over three years, while matric results plummeted from an 88% pass rate in 2021 to 66.2% last year, and high school learners sat on bricks because there were no chairs. 

Police are also investigating a fraud case after R70  000 was allegedly stolen from Kwa-Dukathole in January last year after a grade 12 learner’s name was allegedly used by the school’s governing body chairperson, Siphamandla Thulo, to syphon the money.

There have been no consequences implemented by the Gauteng education department for the apparent looting of public funds, which resulted in the school securing credit of R20  000 from a loan shark for emergency purchases. 

Opperman, while acknowledging “issues” in some Katlehong schools, spoke highly of the department, saying he received major support from the premier’s office for his work. 

The principal, who still has 20 years before reaching retirement age, said he had no plans to leave Katlehong because “there was still a lot of work to be done”. 

His love for the township dates back to about 1998 when he was a junior police officer assigned to the Katlehong North police station. 

“We used to arrest a lot of car hijackers and a vast majority of them were young men,” Opperman recalled.

“The other cops used to beat and torture them a lot. I could not stomach it because I’m a very soft person, but I also could see that all that was needed was to give the young guys a proper opportunity so that crime did not become an option to earn a living.” 

He left the police service after a few years to pursue an education qualification at the University of Pretoria, eventually ending up with a postgraduate degree from the same institution. 

Opperman said he and the chairperson of his school governing body, Tshidiso Molese, were in the process of extending the engineering school’s campus by acquiring the former grounds and classrooms of Kgolamoriti Primary School. 

The former Sepedi first-language school had to close a few years ago when the number of learners dropped. 

Should the education department grant the request, Opperman said the premises of the former primary school would be used for learners in grades 8 and 9.

“We have more than 3  000 applications for grade 8, but we can only accept 250. Everyone wants to come here, which is a good thing,” he said.

“I want to increase that intake to 500 in grade 8 so that more children get the opportunity to be taught by us. As I said to you, we still have a lot of work to do before I even think about leaving Katlehong.”

There are two boreholes at Kutsakeni Primary, but staff say they dried up in 2021.

Parent Randzu Macebe told GroundUp, “We are worried because the classrooms are in bad condition, except for the administration block. The school does not have [running] water, and learners have to pay R150 a year to assist the school to buy water.”

The school has just under 400 learners and is overcrowded.

SGB chair, January Baloyi, said the school spends about R4,000 each month to refill the water tanks. He acknowledged that some parents cannot afford to, especially those relying on social grants.

Beside their water troubles, Kutsakeni Primary was badly damaged during a storm that hit Giyani in October. It damaged the school’s already dilapidated and old buildings. The walls of most classrooms have cracks, and floors have holes in them. As a result, meals are now cooked in an informal zinc structure on the premises.

Members of the SGB say they have written to the Limpopo Department of Education about these issues numerous times for more than ten years. The members we spoke to said over the years they have tried, but failed, to access underground water by drilling at different spots.

A letter pleading for urgent intervention from the education department dated 24 October 2024 was signed by the principal, two SGB members and the village’s Chief Mkhacani Nhlaniki.

They urged the department to address the situation and for officials to visit the school as soon as possible, citing the safety of learners and staff as a concern.

Limpopo education department spokesperson, Mosebjane Kgaffe said that after the school first complained about the conditions, they provided three mobile classrooms in 2019.

Asked about the recent damage caused by the October storm, Kgaffe said only one roof had been severely damaged and that Public Works had been contacted to assist with repairs. But we saw more damaged infrastructure during our visit to the school.

Kgaffe said that the school is on the department’s priority list for upgrades in order to meet national norms and standards.

Published in partnership with Limpopo Mirror.

This article was first published by GroundUp

This is after then higher education minister Blade Nzimande in March said the registration of Educor institutions — City Varsity, Damelin, Icesa, City Campus and Lyceum College — had been cancelled on 26 July 2023.

He said the institutions had not complied with the Higher Education Act and had submitted their annual financial statements and tax clearance certificates for the 2021 and 2022 years, as proof of their financial viability.

The department had also received complaints from the public about the institutions including non-payment of staff salaries and a lack of professionalism.

The company’s property arm, Educor Property Holdings, is facing 10 liquidation applications relating to loans that Nedbank has filed against it in the Durban high court. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has a 42% stake in the company after investing R755 million in 2015.

Staff members at one of the Educor institutions, who asked to remain anonymous, said this week that the provisional reinstatement of registration on “humanitarian grounds” should have been a relief but staff salary delays were “getting really bad”.

Some who have not been paid for August, September and October have filed cases with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. 

One staff member who works at City Varsity in Cape Town said: “I am currently unpaid for September and October. The resulting financial pressure on my family has been huge, as we’ve had to rely on credit to cover the outstanding salaries. As interest mounts and minimum payments get bigger, the situation becomes more and more stressful.” 

She said the fact that most staff had not resigned “speaks to the deep love and dedication we have to our students and campus”.

“But that dedication also has a flip side. I have to witness my students struggle to get answers and make decisions about their academic year and future studies, and I am unable to provide them any answers or advice. We’re all in the dark, students and staff, about what’s next,” she said.

“But students and fee payers are understandably reluctant to pay fees when they have not had classes for months, and this after the deregistration announcement [in March] already shook their confidence.

“If we have any hope of completing the academic year, it will need to be extended into 2025 … student anxiety and stress over their future studies has been high, but at least we were all committed to completing the year.

“There are also huge financial ramifications for students and parents. If we do not complete the year, will these students get refunds? Students would have lost a year or more of their lives. Some, who are on the verge of graduating, will lose even more time if they want to complete the year elsewhere, as credit transfer rules don’t allow you to transfer more than 50% of your credits from one institution to another.”

She said staff and management had suggested many strategies and solutions to improve the marketing, student intake and fee structure of the institution but these had not been implemented. The teacher also wondered how much oversight the PIC has had as a major investor in Educor over the years.

A second staff member said he had not been paid for September and October and students were unsure whether classes would resume and they could finish their qualifications.

Educor Holdings and its founder Leo Chetty had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. Higher education spokesperson Camagwini Mavovana said the department was “not commenting currently” on the matter and referred queries to Educor. The PIC had also not commented by the time of publication.