Note to Editors: Please find soundbite by Sakhile Mngadi MPL in isiZulu and English
• DA writes to KZN Acting Education Portfolio committee chairperson to request urgent portfolio committee sitting
• Persistent financial non-compliance by KZN’s DoE, leading to unpaid teachers and service providers, is totally unacceptable
• National Assembly intervention is a step in the right direction.
The DA in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is alarmed by the deepening financial implosion within the province’s Department of Education (DoE) – a crisis that is now threatening the wellbeing of millions of learners and the constitutional viability of KZN’s education system.
The immediate concern is the DoE’s failure to pay National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) service providers during March and April. As schools reopen today, suppliers are staging a sit-in while KZN’s more than two million learners – many of whom rely on school meals as their only daily source of nutrition – are at risk of returning to classrooms with empty stomachs.
This is not an administrative hiccup – it is a gross dereliction of duty and a broader systemic failure.
Recent revelations confirm that these unpaid invoices are part of accumulated accruals, carried over from a financially reckless 2024/25 budget, which failed to allocate sufficient funds for critical service delivery. The debts are due to be settled from the 2025/26 budget, which has yet to be passed by the Legislature.
In simple terms – the DoE has made financial promises it cannot legally keep.
This fiscal crisis has been aggravated by persistent Cost of Employees (CoE) over-expenditure. KZN’s DoE continues to increase its wage bill far beyond National Treasury’s allocation, ignoring the pressure it places on other essential programmes including school infrastructure, textbook procurement and nutrition.
Most damningly, the DoE misled both the portfolio committee and the public with its reassurances that service providers and staff would be paid on time. These assurances have now proved to be either willfully dishonest or the result of severe internal mismanagement.
Last week, the DoE’s financial conduct was rightly flagged in the National Assembly under Section 18 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) – a clause invoked when a provincial government department is in such persistent financial non-compliance that it may face direct intervention. This is a national red flag.
In the event that corrective measures are not immediately implemented, the DA will support the invocation of Section 18 and all associated constitutional remedies, including placing the DoE under administration.
The DA in KZN has today formally written (view here) to Acting KZN Education portfolio committee Chairperson, Hlengiwe Mavimbela, requesting an urgent special Legislature Sitting to:
• Secure full disclosure of all unpaid accruals as at 31 March 2025
• Hear directly from Provincial Treasury on the sustainability of the DoE’s financial commitments
• Seek legal opinion on the DoE’s ongoing violations of the PFMA
• Demand accountability from DoE leadership for misleading the portfolio committee and public and;
• Develop a recovery plan to ensure all KZN learners receive meals without delay.
This is no longer just a financial issue. It is a humanitarian and constitutional crisis, born out of poor leadership and a toxic culture of evasion and spin.
Every day that passes without urgent intervention places more children at risk, undermines their right to education and erodes the public’s faith in government. As part of KZN’s Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), the DA will not stand by while the DoE continues to fail our children.