Khalid Sayed
WESTERN Cape Education is in a dire state, marred by teacher cuts, particularly in poor schools, unplaced learners, gang violence that results in fatal shootings in schools, racialised placement mechanism that saw several learners being sent back to schools in their areas, then schools of choice along racial lines.
These are some of the issues we wish to highlight in the “Cape of Storms” led by the Democratic Alliance which has been driving exclusionary policies, with a right-wing flair that is deepening inequality of the poor to be poorer, and rich being richer.
As we await Premier Alan Winde's State of the Province Address (SOPA 2025), we expect these matters to be at the centre of his address and this province's growth agenda.The Western Cape (WC) government announced cutting the education budget by R2.5 billion.
The budget cut affected administration, curriculum and infrastructure, and further impacted learner transport, which also has been cut for children from farm areas who walk more than 3km to schools. This budget cut has also resulted in a reduction of 2 407 teacher posts for the 2025 academic year, increasing the learner-educator ratio (LER) from 33.66 in 2024 to 39.49 for the current year.
This will have a massive impact on academic outcomes and increase the pressure on educators. The irony of the teacher cuts as exposed by Dr Seelam Naidoo in his article that “data analysis uncovers how the WCED secretively exempted over 400 schools from contract teacher post cuts”; meaning MEC David Maynier misled Parliament.
To paint a picture of the grim situation the WC government has put our education system, more than 1 586 learners were still waiting to be placed in schools (latest update 6 February 2025). The learners are from Grade 1 and Grade 8, a clear indication of a systematic problem of the placement mechanism that is recurring.
A month into the academic year, children and parents are still waiting to hear if they will find a place to learn or not. And we are aware that the communities that will bear the brunt of the budget cuts are public schools in disadvantaged communities. So, we would like the Premier, Alan Winde, to address these challenges, particularly, how his government intends on supporting schools, in rural areas, in the Cape flats and those under-resourced. In his State of the Nation Address (SONA 2025), President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted the importance of Early Childhood Development (ECD) and the need to invest in ECD centres around the country.
We would like to hear a clear plan from the Premier, on how the WC government intends to invest in ECD. We want a plan that ensures children with complex needs—such as those affected by Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or prenatal exposure to substances like Tik—are properly assessed and placed in an appropriate educational environment and that assessment needs to happen at the ECD level, to better support children as they navigate the education system.
On the 21st of February 2025, police minister Senzo Mchunu announced the latest crime statistics. According to the statistics, Cape Town has one of the highest gang-related murders in the country, with headlines such as “learner caught in a crossfire between rival gangs”. Crime affects us all, however, more needs to be done to protect our schools. It cannot be a norm for learners to go to school.
We need systematic solutions, and this can be achieved through working with various stakeholders, like the South African Police Service, community stakeholders and government. We are pleased with the signing of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill into law. The Bill will address the issue of language policy and will force schools to consider the broader linguistic needs of the communities in which they are situated.
We see this as a great opportunity for redress and greater inclusion for all learners and we love to hear how this will be implemented by the WCED, as we know the Western Cape is one of the most unequal provinces in the country.
If you look at the Provincial and Economic Review & Outlook for 2024, the Western Cape's Gini coefficient has declined from 0.66 in 2002 to 0.59 in 2022, indicating more equal income distribution in the province, in comparison to the national Gini coefficient of 0.68. However, if you look at the massive job losses in the agriculture, construction and trade sectors (more than 80,000 jobs) between Quarter one and Quarter two.
This is in line with Stats SA's Q1 outlook, with the Western Cape recording the highest decrease in employment (-17%) (Stats SA, 2024). In the Stats SA (2025) Income & Expenditure Survey (IES) 2022/2023, the average household income of white-headed households was almost five times higher than that of black African-headed households and almost three times higher than the average household income of coloured-headed households.
The gap between the rich and poor is alarming, and this has a huge impact on the access to education and where children go to school. We do not need stats to tell us that, we see in the manner in which the Western Cape allocates resources and sets their priorities in the province.
The ordinary black child is left behind and that is why we strongly believe that, through education, we can alleviate unemployment and poverty, and eventually close the gap of inequality in the country.
We must call on the Western Cape government to desist from the systematic exclusion of its education system and urgently implement a path of intentionality in fostering inclusionary policies that will disrupt the inequality of opportunities in the province.
Khalid Sayed is the Leader of the Opposition in the Western Cape Legislature.