• DA to consider reporting HOD to the Public Protector (PP) following abuse of power, unconstitutional obstruction of oversight
• Circular 29 seeks to unilaterally strip MPLs – particularly KZN’s Education portfolio committee – of their constitutional mandate, an act that is both unlawful and anti-democratic.
• The DA will make sure that HOD Ngcobo cannot undermine the legislature’s constitutional authority without consequence.
Note to Editors: Please find Sakhile Mngadi, MPL sound bites in English and isiZulu
The DA is outraged by Circular 29 of 2025 (view here), issued by KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Education HOD, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, which seeks to impose a 30-day approval process before Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) can conduct oversight within the province’s schools.
The directive, aimed primarily at members of KZN’s Education portfolio committee, is a blatant attempt to evade accountability and transparency within the province’s failing education system. Circular 29 is not just an administrative inconvenience – it is a direct attack on democracy, oversight, and transparency.
Instead of ensuring quality education, safe learning environments, and the proper allocation of resources, HOD Ngcobo has resorted to an illegal bureaucratic manoeuvre to shield his department from scrutiny. The question is: What is he trying to hide?
The 30-day application period is a deliberate tactic to delay, frustrate, and ultimately prevent urgent oversight visits, effectively silencing those tasked with holding the Department of Education (DoE) accountable.
The reality is that many of KZN’s schools are in crisis, facing infrastructure collapse, staff shortages, and mismanagement. The 30-day application period is not only unnecessary but directly contradicts the purpose of oversight, which is meant to be swift, responsive, and unfiltered.
The DoE should be welcoming oversight, not blocking it. By imposing this bureaucratic red tape, the HOD is not just violating constitutional principles but actively obstructing MPLs – elected to represent the public – from exposing the department’s failures and ultimately ensuring that the problems highlighted are fixed.
This directive is also a violation of Section 114(2) of the Constitution, which mandates the provincial legislature to ensure that the executive is held accountable and to conduct oversight over any provincial organ of state. Circular 29 seeks to unilaterally strip MPLs – particularly KZN’s Education portfolio committee – of their constitutional mandate, an act that is both unlawful and anti-democratic.
It further undermines Section 195(1) of the Constitution, which sets out the basic values and principles of public administration, including transparency and accountability, both of which this circular deliberately erodes.
This untested and, in our view, unlawful directive cannot go unchallenged. The DA will take immediate steps to ensure that it is scrapped which include:
• Reporting HOD Ngcobo to the Public Protector (PP) for abuse of power and unconstitutional obstruction of oversight. His attempt to manipulate the oversight process to avoid accountability is a gross violation of ethical governance;
• Writing to Education MEC, Sipho Hlomuka (view here), to demand that he immediately intervene and overturn Circular 29. The MEC must take a stand or he will be complicit in shielding his department’s failures and;
• Escalating this matter to KZN Legislature Speaker, Nontembeko Boyce and to KZN’s Education portfolio committee for urgent intervention at a parliamentary level. HOD Ngcobo cannot be allowed to undermine the legislature’s constitutional authority without consequence.
In the event that this directive is not withdrawn, the DA, as part of KZN’s Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) will use all available means, including legal action, to have it declared unconstitutional and overturned. We will not allow an ANC-run department to dismantle oversight and operate in secrecy while KZN’s education system continues to deteriorate.