A special task team, led by KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli, will be set up to find solutions to growing financial challenges facing the provincial department of education.
This emerged after a high-level meeting convened by basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube with senior provincial leaders in Durban on Monday afternoon.
The meeting, attended by Ntuli, education and finance MECs Sipho Hlomuka and Francois Rodgers and other senior officials, sought to address the severe budget constraints affecting the functioning of schools in the province.
Gwarube said financial pressures are affecting the entire country. However, she stressed that KZN’s situation requires immediate and coordinated effort to address them effectively.
She said the size of its education system means it is too important to ignore, and warned its financial issues could impact the education landscape across the country.
“KZN is home to the largest education system in the country, serving more than two million pupils and supported by tens of thousands of teachers and support staff. Due to the scale, financial challenges here have a massive impact,” she said.
“The province contributes about 25% of those who write the National Senior Certificate (NSC) to the total number in the country, which again speaks to the sheer size of the province.”
The department is operating under National Treasury intervention after concerns about alleged funding mismanagement and irregular expenditure which have left several schools and service providers unpaid.
Gwarube said the meeting focused mainly on three critical issues affecting school operations: the protection of school transfers, the provision of learning and teaching materials (LTSM) and scholar transport.
She said the safeguarding of school transfers, or the money sent from the provincial government to schools to cover basic operations. particularly for quintile 1,2, and 3 schools, is non-negotiable.
“Those are the poorest schools in the country and they rely solely on government funding, so it becomes incredibly important that we have the transfers protected so schools can do what they need to do,” she said.
“The transfers also ensure schools are able to roll out internal exams and National Senior Certificate examinations.”
She said LTSM was important as preparations begin for the 2026 academic year, while scholar transport has become increasingly strained under financial conditions.
Gwarube commended Ntuli’s commitment to addressing the challenges, noting he and Rodgers had allocated R900m earlier this year to support the department.
“We understand this is not a small investment, and we are grateful the sector is receiving his undivided attention. He has become an ally for the education system.”
Gwarube highlighted the solid partnership between Hlomuka and Rodgers, especially through the Public Finance Management Act intervention.
“Work being done by the MECs is also around the issue of ghost employees and sound contract management.”
The minister commended the province for remaining compliant with the conditions of national grants, mainly those allocated for infrastructure development and school nutrition programmes.
“It becomes a concern where provinces start to use conditional grants for things they are not meant for. In this case, we are pleased to see the infrastructure grant is going to capital projects, and nutrition funds are being used where they are meant to be.”
She committed to support the department and the provincial task team until it finds a “solid financial footing”.
Speaking about the immediate priorities of the task team, Gwarube said: “The short-term actions will include ensuring we are looking at the releasing of transfers and looking after conditional grants to ensure every cent is spent on every classroom.”
Ntuli said addressing the financial crisis was a gradual process, and the meeting formed part of it.
“It will contribute to the resolutions and actions that have been realised.”
He said he had set up a technical working group of senior government officials who regularly brief the provincial cabinet regularly on progress and challenges within the department.
There is also a troika structure consisting of his office and the two departments to monitor efforts to stabilise the department which has borne fruit.
“We were able to address the challenges of 2024. As a result we will go to the examinations without challenges.”
Rodgers said the crisis was not entirely of their own making as national government had cut equitable share grants to provinces for more than a decade and agreed to unfunded wage agreements with frontline workers. That cost KZN R80bn, forcing it to cut its baseline budget over that period.
He criticised the way budgets are traditionally done by using the previous year’s spending to plan for the new budget. He said the method was unsustainable and needed to be reconsidered.
“Historical budgeting must go out of the window, including at the national government level. We cannot say: ‘What did we spend last year?’ Let’s add in inflation and that’s our budget for next year.’ If that continues, we will never get out of the mess,” he said.
“That is something we’re working on, and I’m delighted National Treasury is doing the same. That is how we will
save our frontline departments of health and education.”
TimesLIVE
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