Slashing 19,000 KZN teacher posts would cripple education: stakeholders

KwaZulu-Natal education stakeholders say the possible axing of 19,000 teaching jobs due to budget constraints would have a dire impact on education in the province.

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana this week highlighted challenges facing government in funding essential services such education and healthcare as a motivation for a two percentage point VAT increase.

Thirona Moodley, National Professional Teachers' Organisation KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson, said the province had not been able to afford the number of teachers it has employed in the recent past and had to balance this by redirecting funds for other services in the department to cover salaries.

“It’s premature for him to say that at this point. It’s like he is pressuring society to accept the [two percentage point] point VAT hike, otherwise there will be a loss of 19,000 jobs in KwaZulu-Natal alone,” she said.

Moodley called on the government to look at preventing wasteful expenditure and apply consequence management.

The Public Servants Association (PSA) blamed the government’s fiscal negligence and misplaced priorities for the crisis.

“This is a direct consequence of inept fiscal planning, wasteful expenditure and misguided policy choices. The PSA finds it completely unacceptable government prioritises political patronage, bloated bureaucracies, and fruitless expenditure while undermining core pillars of service delivery,” it said.

“The crisis in the education department is a direct result of financial mismanagement and corruption, as evidenced by stalled infrastructure projects, misallocation of resources and a lack of consequence management for corrupt contractors. The PSA demands a full investigation into the failures and the immediate prosecution of those responsible for siphoning public funds.”

The union said it was devastating for a province with more than 6,000 schools and which was the most improved province in terms of the matric pass rate last year.

The PSA said the axing of 19,000 teachers would result in overcrowded classrooms and have a severe impact on the quality of education.

“Remaining teachers will face increased workloads, leading to burnout and reduced effectiveness. There will be a further rise in youth unemployment as qualified job-seeking teachers will be without opportunities. These severe learning disruptions will disproportionately affect underprivileged communities.”

DA spokesperson on education in the provincial legislature Sakhile Mngadi said the crisis stemmed from “budgetary imbalances”.

“The repercussions of the budgetary imbalance are stark. Since the 2021/2022 financial year, the education department has had to cut 4,231 posts, with 8,690 positions remaining vacant as of December. Despite the cuts, a projected overspend of R1.4bn looms for the 2025 financial year, primarily due to unchecked salary costs,” he said.

He said 80% of the R65.8bn budget allocated to the department for the 2025/26 financial year was going to workers' salaries. This follows the Treasury’s refusal to fund wage increases last year, which forced provincial government to divert more than R1bn to cover salaries.

Mngadi proposed a three-step solution to mitigate the situation:

• A comprehensive audit of expenditure to identify and eliminate education's wasteful and irregular spending.
• Prioritisation of frontline services, with the reallocation of resources from non-essential projects and administrative overheads to safeguard teaching positions and essential educational services.
• Long-term fiscal planning through the development and implementation of sustainable financial strategies that prioritise education and other critical public services to prevent such crises in future.

He said the party would soon submit a new Schools Evaluation Authority Bill to focus on spending and transparency on budget allocations and prevent future shortfalls, with an emphasis on allocating resources to the classroom.

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