NINETEEN thousand teaching posts are at risk in KwaZulu-Natal, due to severe budget constraints.

The looming crisis was announced earlier this week by Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana.

Sakhile Mngadi, MPL, DA KZN spokesperson on education, said this would place the province's entire education system at risk.

“During the 2025/26 financial year, KZN’s Department of Education (DoE) was allocated R65 834 billion - a nominal 4.5% increase from the previous year. However, this increment is grossly insufficient to address the department’s escalating costs," said Mngadi.

“Alarmingly, more than 80% of the DoE’s budget is consumed by personnel salaries, leaving a meagre 7% (about R4 237 billion) for operational expenses and critical infrastructure projects,” he added.

This overwhelming focus on salaries has severely hampered the ability to invest in critical resources for schools across our province, said Mngadi.

“The repercussions of this budgetary imbalance are stark. Since the 2021/2022 financial year, the DoE has had to cut 4 231 posts, with 8 690 positions remaining vacant as of December 2024. Despite these cuts, a projected overspend of R1.4 billion looms for the 2025 financial year, primarily due to unchecked salary costs.

“We have consistently advocated for the protection of frontline education services. We have also repeatedly called for the national government to fully fund wage agreements to prevent provinces from bearing undue financial burdens. The current crisis is a testament to the former ANC government's failure to heed these warnings,” he said.

He said in a bid to mitigate these challenges and ensure that schools were better equipped to function efficiently, the DA would soon submit a new Schools Evaluation Authority Bill, which would seek to:

- Establish a dedicated body to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of spending within schools, particularly regarding the allocation of funds for personnel, infrastructure and educational materials;

- Enhance accountability within the DoE, ensuring that resources are directed where they are most needed - in our classrooms - rather than being siphoned off by inefficient administrative processes or wasteful expenditures;

- Provide for greater transparency in how budgets are allocated and used at provincial and district levels, ensuring that schools are adequately resourced to deliver quality education despite budgetary constraints and;

- Implement robust oversight measures to prevent future shortfalls in critical areas such as teacher recruitment and retention, thereby protecting vital teaching positions that are central to our children’s education.

To mitigate the current crisis, they also proposed:

- A comprehensive audit of expenditures to identify and eliminate DoE wasteful and irregular expenditures;

- Prioritisation of frontline services with the reallocation of resources from non-essential projects and administrative overheads in order to safeguard teaching positions and essential educational services and;

- 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.

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19 000 teaching posts at risk in KwaZulu-Natal due to budget constraints