News24 reports that the Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools (Fedsas) has described the 29,292 vacancies at public schools as “a national disaster taking place right in front of us”.

According to a document discussed at a meeting by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) on 6 June, there were 14,832 vacancies for teachers, 8,142 for heads of department, 2,872 for deputy principals and 3,446 for principals. Provinces with the highest vacancy rates were the Eastern Cape (5,527), KwaZulu-Natal (5,033) and Gauteng (4,099). According to the DBE’s School Realities report, 412,638 teachers were employed at the country’s 22,381 public schools in 2024. Fedsas CEO Jaco Deacon commented: “These posts were budgeted for, and the money was paid to provincial education departments a long time ago. Last month, Fedsas also pointed out that only three of the nine provinces made the compulsory payments to schools by the deadline of 15 May, which is a statutory requirement.” According to Deacon, provincial education departments received two amounts, including millions of rands for vacant posts and statutory payments. “This money may not be used for anything else, yet in most instances, neither appointments nor statutory payments were made. Any other use of this money would be considered unlawful,” Deacon explained. He added that the situation in KwaZulu-Natal was dire because the provincial education department had not made any statutory payments, and there were thousands of vacant posts.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Prega Govender at News24 (subscription / trial registration required)

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