Note to Editors: Please note Sakhile Mngadi, MPL soundbites in English and isiZulu.
• KZN Education Department must be summoned to account
• This is a human rights crisis – someone must be held accountable
The DA has written to Acting Education Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Hlengiwe Mavimbela MPL, demanding that KZN’s Department of Education (DoE) be urgently summoned to explain the collapse of Special Needs Schools across the province.
The move follows confirmation by the South African National Association for Special Education (SANASE) that instructions have been sent to the 76 institutions in KZN – both public and private special schools dependent on state subsidies – that they either close or suspend operations due to delayed payments and ongoing neglect. Every district in KZN is affected.
Among the worst-hit are:
• Truro Prevocational School (Chatsworth) – already closed
• Ningizimu Special School (Durban) – struggling to meet basic needs
• Isikhwezi Special School (uMhlathuze) – forced to close amid severe financial crisis, unpaid teachers, and failing services
These schools are lifelines for children with disabilities. Now, they are being systematically abandoned.
This is not an administrative hiccup. It is a province-wide failure caused by years of incompetence and indifference. Vulnerable learners are being left without food, care, transport, or education – a gross violation of their constitutional rights.
KZN’s DoE is in breach of:
• The Constitution
• The South African Schools Act
• The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The department has blamed a “technical error” – that is a blatant lie. These funding failures are chronic and well-documented. The DA will not allow this disgrace to be brushed aside.
We demand that DoE HOD, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, appear before the portfolio committee to explain:
• Why payments have been delayed
• What emergency steps are being taken
• Who will be held accountable
If the HOD cannot protect the rights of KZN’s most vulnerable learners, he must go.
Children with disabilities deserve dignity. Their parents deserve justice. As a partner within KZN’s Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), the DA will not rest until there is full accountability and every Special Needs School in this province is restored