Young people from political parties, youth-led organisations and unemployed graduates have been urged to help communities understand government policies and development plans that directly affect their lives.

The call was made by African Luminary, a non-profit dedicated to “shaping young minds for a stronger South Africa”, following a special youth meeting held at the Faranani Multipurpose Centre in Tsakane, Ekurhuleni, this month.

The meeting was chaired by Sthembiso Sibiya, a Social Curriculum Developer, Educator, LLB Student and Chairperson of African Luminary NPC.

The organisation said the discussion centred on the question: “What can young people do to contribute to a better South Africa?”

The programme introduced African Luminary’s Social Curriculum and began work towards developing a Youth Programme of Action.

“One of the issues considered was the question of the generational struggle of young South Africans,” the organisation said.

“Inequality and social class emerged as important areas of consideration, although participants did not reach a final collective conclusion that these alone define the generation’s struggle.”

“A key principle of the Social Curriculum discussed during the meeting is that solutions should emerge from an understanding of the problems,” it said.

“The objective is therefore to move beyond discussion towards practical interventions.”

The meeting also identified quality education and social awareness as important foundations for building a more informed, active and independent generation.

African Luminary called on young people to help communities access and understand the National Youth Policy and Integrated Development Plan documents, including by encouraging their availability in libraries, clinics and other accessible public and community spaces.

“Young people should not rely exclusively on government to solve every problem affecting them,” it said.

“They can also become active participants in understanding public policy, identifying community problems, and contributing to solutions.”

It urged young people across Africa to convene similar meetings bringing together people from different political parties and youth-led structures to independently define their generation’s challenges, mission and programme of action.

“The broader objective is to encourage young Africans to move from identifying problems to developing practical solutions for their communities, countries, and continent,” the organisation said.

Romeo Sibeko, representing local youth and the Al-Jama party, said that the session taught him how media can influence thoughts and behaviours, and how youth can stay united in their approach for South Africa.

“I think with the decisions that was taken within the collective, we will empower a lot of youth going forward,” Sibeko said.

Thapelo Ntuli, a youth community member from Tsakane, said the meeting was a step towards youth empowerment and improving living standards, also mentioning its focus on guiding boys to becoming men and men to being responsible.

“We were trying to create a loophole for the youth when it comes to job opportunities, equality, and empowerment,” Ntuli said.

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Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies have been crowned 2026 Engen Champ of Champs winners after dominant victories in Sunday’s finals.

Playing at the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre, Tshwane, on Sunday, Chiefs claimed the Under-18 boys’ title with a 3-0 victory over East High Academy of Mpumalanga, while Sundowns Ladies completed their campaign with a 2-0 win over RV United of the Western Cape in the Under-20 girls’ final.

The two Gauteng champions capped impressive campaigns at a tournament bringing together provincial champions from across South Africa under the theme “Where Diski Legends Start”.

Chiefs had entered the final after overcoming Western Cape champions Antalyaspor JPM Cape Town in their semi-final, while East High Academy booked their place in the decider by beating KwaZulu-Natal champions AmaZulu.

The final victory completed an unbeaten tournament for Chiefs, who topped Group A with three wins and a draw before navigating the knockout stage.

The Amakhosi development side had opened their campaign with a 2-0 victory over Tshepo Academy and followed that with a goalless draw against East High.

They then defeated TenPont Academy 3-1 before edging Pixley Youth 1-0 to finish at the summit of the group.

East High finished second in Group A after victories over Pixley Youth and TenPont Academy and a goalless draw against Chiefs.

Sundowns Ladies were even more driven on their way to the girls’ crown, completing the tournament without conceding a goal.

The Gauteng side swept through Group A with victories over Toti Ladies, Mafikeng Ladies, Royal Wizards and Ixias Ladies before defeating Superstrikers in the semi-finals.

Their group-stage campaign included a 4-0 victory over Toti Ladies and a 5-0 demolition of Mafikeng Ladies, followed by further wins over Royal Wizards and Ixias.

They carried that defensive record into the final, where the 2-0 victory over RV United from the Western Cape, secured the girls’ championship.

RV United had topped Group B and reached the final after defeating Ixias Ladies in the semi-finals.

Chiefs’ Malibongwe Mtshali was named the Player and Striker of the Tournament in the boys’ competition after playing a key role in the Amakhosi’s successful title-winning campaign.

Mamelodi Sundowns’ Lebogang Buthane was named both Player and Top Goalscorer of the Tournament in the U20 girls’ competition after helping her side secure the title.

The boys’ top goalscorer award was shared by Kaizer Chiefs trio Shaun Els, Lebohang Dhlamini and Tsheamo Mosana, alongside Omphile Bokala of TenPont United.

The final day brought together a number of prominent figures from South African football landscape, attending during the competition.

Mamelodi Sundowns chairman Tlhopie Motsepe, Kaizer Chiefs sporting director Kaizer Motaung Jr., Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis and national team captain Refiloe Jane were among those who watched the young players in action.

AmaZulu coach Arthur Zwane also attended, alongside former Chippa United coach Kwanele Kopo and Usuthu head of football strategy Sinesipho Mali.

Kaizer Chiefs defender Rushwin Dortley was also spotted supporting his younger brother Emile, who represented the Amakhosi development side.

The tournament also highlighted the pathway between youth football and the professional game through the presence of several Engen alumni.

Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies players Ronnel Donnelly and Katlego Malebane attended after their recent COSAFA Women’s CAF Champions League Qualifier success, while Bennet Mokoena and Kamogelo Mareletse were present following Amajita’s COSAFA Under-20 Cup triumph.

Keabetswe Morake, another Amajita player, was involved on the field for Chiefs.

The 2026 tournament featured nine boys’ and nine girls’ teams representing provincial champions from across the country.

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Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has called for greater protection of children online, saying the state has a constitutional duty to safeguard learners from digital harm.

Speaking at the 15th National Schools Moot Court Competition at Constitution Hill on Sunday, Kubayi said online safety could not be left to children to manage on their own.

“Section 7(2) places the duty on the State to respect, protect, promote and fulfil these rights. Online safety is not something we can leave to children to manage alone,” she said.

Kubayi said the issues raised reflected the growing challenge of balancing constitutional rights with the risks children face in digital environments.

Inside Education reported in June that 67% of South African children aged eight to 18 had experienced at least one major cyber risk, including cyberbullying, exploitation, harmful content and technology overuse, according to Child Online Safety Index data.

The moot court competition, launched in 2011, is run by the justice and basic education departments together with the South African Human Rights Commission.

Last year, more than 900 Grade 9 learners entered the competition, with 36 teams progressing to the national rounds before finalists argued at the Constitutional Court.

Kubayi said hundreds of schools and thousands of learners from urban, township and rural communities had taken part in constitutional education programmes this year.

She said government wanted to broaden participation so learners had access to legal literacy programmes regardless of geography or school resources.

The competition also coincides with the 30th anniversary of the adoption of South Africa’s Constitution.

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The Auditor-General (AG) has warned that financial management problems across the country’s higher education portfolio are no longer isolated failures, raising concerns about recurring audit findings, weak project management, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and a lack of consequence management.

Briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education on Friday, the AG said the portfolio was regressing, despite an improvement in the audit outcomes of TVET colleges specifically.

The warning came after committee member Dr Delmaine Christians questioned whether the overall portfolio was getting worse, pointing to a decline in clean audits from 11 entities to nine and an increase in qualified audits from nine to 11.

The AG said the distinction between the TVET sector and the broader portfolio was important.

“When it comes to the portfolio, we would not necessarily say that there has been an improvement. In fact, I would say that there has actually been a regression,” the AG said.

The AG said the weaknesses identified across entities were similar and increasingly pointed to a systemic problem rather than isolated failures.

“We are seeing that over the years, it’s getting worse instead of getting better, which is an area of concern,” the AG said.

The AG said recurring weaknesses included poor project management, incorrect financial reporting, irregular expenditure and failures to properly account for skills-development initiatives.

The AG said some entities had received qualified audit opinions for several consecutive years, making it necessary to investigate the underlying causes rather than simply attributing the problems to a lack of capacity.

“You may find that it actually could get to a point of realising that it’s being done deliberately,” the AG said, while stressing the need for deeper investigations to establish the root causes.

Christians also raised concerns about NSFAS, whose audit was again outstanding because of the late submission of its financial statements.

The committee member questioned whether the repeated problems were evidence of systemic deterioration in financial management across the portfolio.

“What I have to ask then is, is the portfolio actually getting worse?” Christians asked.

The AG said the biggest problem was not the absence of corrective action plans, but the failure to implement them and hold officials accountable.

“The key thing that we would recommend is consequence management, a culture of consequence management in the sector,” the AG said.

The AG said audit action plans were assessed for whether they adequately addressed the root causes of findings, but implementation and monitoring remained weak.

“You can clearly then link it to somebody who hasn’t done what they’re meant to have done,” the AG said.

However, officials were often not subjected to disciplinary or other consequences when they failed to implement corrective measures, allowing the same problems to recur.

Christians agreed that the problem was no longer identifying what was wrong.

“The problem is that nobody is being held sufficiently accountable to fix that,” she said.

The AG also raised concerns about the growing amount of fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the portfolio.

Christians said the closing balance had increased from about R275 million to R536 million, with another R87 million incurred during the financial year.

She said the expenditure included services that were not delivered, learner stipends that were not paid, bank payment fraud and overpayments to skills-development providers.

The AG said the continued accumulation of fruitless and wasteful expenditure was directly linked to failures to investigate losses, recover money and impose consequences on those responsible.

“That’s why you are seeing a growing trend of that fruitless and wasteful expenditure in terms of accumulation,” the AG said.

The official said institutions were required to investigate the causes of fruitless and wasteful expenditure, identify those responsible, institute disciplinary processes where necessary and recover losses.

The AG said investigations often remained outstanding for long periods, with institutions continuing to report that investigations were still in progress.

The committee also raised specific concerns about the Northern Cape Urban TVET College, where problems have reportedly remained unresolved since 2022. The college has previously been the subject of parliamentary scrutiny over allegations of financial mismanagement and governance failures.

Christians told the committee that the problems at the college were continuing to spiral out of control and urged the department to urgently conduct a forensic investigation.

“The fact that the Auditor-General has raised it once again, where a team has been sent by the DHET, and the team has come back with no substantive information, that is even more concerning,” she said.

Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela said the department shared the concern over the college and was committed to stabilising its governance and management.

“I do share your concern that if that college or any of the colleges anywhere in the country collapses, you know, it has serious implications,” Manamela said.

Deputy Director-General for TVET Sam Zungu said the department had previously sent a team led by its chief director responsible for finance to examine some of the issues raised at the college.

However, Zungu said the team was not made up of forensic investigators and therefore could not establish whether potential fraud had occurred.

“The team that is sent, they are not trained as forensic investigators,” Zungu said.

He said the department would therefore have to consider conducting a forensic investigation following the concerns raised by the Auditor-General.

“It’s something that we will be embarking on as a department in that regard,” Zungu said.

The committee chairperson, Tebogo Letsie, meanwhile raised separate concerns about consequence management at a construction-sector SETA that has been under administration since 2025.

Letsie said a forensic report that cost the state almost R18 million had made recommendations that administrators were supposed to implement, but he could not identify a single recommendation that had been implemented a year after their appointment.

He also questioned the decision to return a supply-chain official to the same position from which she had been suspended while disciplinary processes were under way.

Letsie said the official was subsequently found guilty of 42 charges, raising further questions about how consequence management was being applied.

He said he intended to provide the department and Auditor-General with documentation relating to the matter and indicated that law-enforcement agencies could ultimately be approached.

The chairperson said the committee could not accept a situation in which institutions continued to disregard audit findings and corrective measures.

The AG’s warning places the repeated audit failures, growing fruitless and wasteful expenditure and weak consequence management at the centre of concerns over the financial administration of the higher education sector.

The Auditor-General said the recurring nature of the problems meant that the portfolio needed to look beyond individual audit findings and establish why institutions continued to fail to correct problems that had been identified year after year.

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Young scientists have secured major university bursaries and other awards at the 2026 Eskom Expo for Young Scientists International Science Fair.

Two learners, Hamzah Loonat and Shalom Lasimu from the Nkangala region, were each awarded Siemens Energy higher education bursaries worth R675,000 to study towards a Bachelor of Science in Engineering at a South African university.

Scott Baker from Bryanston High School in Johannesburg received the University of Pretoria-Derek Gray Memorial Award, which includes a R600,000 university bursary and the Derek Gray Gold Medal.

Eskom also provisionally awarded merit bursaries to six young scientists, subject to their final National Senior Certificate results as well as the utility’s bursary and university admission requirements.

The awards were announced at the 46th Eskom Expo International Science Fair in Boksburg, which ran from September 29 to October 2 and brought together 316 young scientists from 35 regions across South Africa and 24 international participants.

Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Nomalungelo Gina, addressing participants on Thursday, said the opportunities offered through the Expo were particularly important as South Africa grappled with shortages of people with STEM skills.

“The reality is that South Africa is not the only country experiencing a skills shortage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or a decline in interest in STEM school subjects,” Gina said.

“Many of the countries represented here face the same challenge.”

Eskom and its partners used the competition to identify and financially support learners who could potentially move into science, engineering, technology and research careers.

Gina said Eskom, one of the country’s major users of technical and engineering skills, would itself require such expertise as it expanded and maintained the country’s electricity infrastructure.

“Our country and our continent can only develop to their full potential when each generation produces enough scientists, technicians, technologists, engineers, researchers and innovators for the next one. That is how progress is sustained, and Eskom understands this.

“It is investing in the very people who will one day build, run and improve the systems on which our nation depends,” Gina said.

The Fair featured young researchers from all nine provinces, alongside participants from countries including Brazil, India, Russia, Lesotho, Namibia, China, Türkiye, Tunisia, Mozambique and Ghana.

Learners had progressed to the international fair through workshops, district expos and regional science fairs, refining their projects through judging and feedback before reaching the final competition.

In addition to the major bursaries, universities, professional bodies and private companies awarded cash prizes, laptops, tablets and smaller bursaries across fields including engineering, environmental science, mathematics, physics, computer science and water research.

Wits University’s Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment awarded R40,000 bursaries to Jonathan van Wyk and Thapelo Shawa, while Mvuyelwa Bam received a R40,000 bursary from the university’s Faculty of Science.

Daniel Ferreira and Paballo Nkwane each received R45,000 bursaries from the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

Gina told participants that the country’s STEM skills shortage should not be regarded only as a future problem for government or industry to solve.

“It is a challenge you are already answering, with every experiment you run and every question you ask.”

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Social Development Minister Dina Pule told a two-day Children’s Summit in White River, Mpumalanga, on Thursday that children must be directly involved in shaping policies and recommendations aimed at protecting them from abuse.

The summit, held under the theme Nothing About Children Without Children, brings together government departments, civil society, law-enforcement agencies, development partners, the private sector and child representatives ahead of the Second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in Manila on November 18 and 19.

It forms part of the Department of Social Development’s October programme for Social Development Month, held this year under the theme Strengthening Families through Partnerships.

“The Department of Social Development is responsible for children and responsible people with disabilities. Today, we will showcase the work that we do for the vulnerable people that we are responsible for, but we chose to start with the children’s summit,” Pule said.

The summit follows commitments made by South Africa at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in Bogotá, Colombia, in November 2024.

At that gathering, South Africa committed to seven child-protection breakthroughs to be implemented across the country’s 52 districts.

Pule said the Bogotá discussions had highlighted the need for countries to strengthen measures to prevent and end violence against children.

Online safety is among the issues receiving particular attention as children increasingly use smartphones and digital platforms for communication, education and social interaction.

Pule said the growing use of technology had created an urgent need to consider how children could be protected from abuse in digital spaces.

“We’re trying to check if children are not going to be abused online,” she said. “We know that children have smartphones and they communicate with them.”

The summit is expected to produce child-informed recommendations and strengthen cooperation between sectors involved in child protection, while ensuring that children’s priorities are reflected in renewed commitments and accountability measures.

According to the World Health Organization’s Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020, about one in two children aged two to 17 — roughly one billion children globally — experiences some form of violence each year.

The scale of the problem means preventing violence against children requires coordinated action across government, communities, families, schools, law-enforcement agencies and organisations working with children.

The recommendations developed during the summit will contribute to future policies, programmes and accountability efforts aimed at protecting children from violence in both physical and digital environments.

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Urban Academy from Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape have booked their place in the final of the 2026 Kay Motsepe Schools Football Championship U19 Boys category after defeating Gauteng’s Clapham High School on penalties following a thrilling 2-2 draw in the semi-final on Monday.

The Eastern Cape side held their nerve in the penalty shootout, winning 4-3 after the two teams could not be separated at the end of regulation time.

The semi-final produced an entertaining encounter, with both schools fighting back to keep their hopes of lifting the national title alive.

Clapham and Urban Academy went into the half-time break deadlocked at 0-0, with neither side able to find the breakthrough in the opening 45 minutes.

The second half, however, delivered an exciting exchange of goals.

Clapham broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute through Thabang Makoba, giving the Gauteng side a 1-0 advantage.

Urban Academy responded in the 75th minute when Aqhama Ndibaza found the back of the net to restore parity and make it 1-1.

The drama continued as Omphemetse Sekgoto regained Clapham’s lead in the 82nd minute, putting the Gauteng side 2-1 ahead.

However, Urban Academy refused to surrender, with Lilitha Voyi scoring a crucial equaliser in the 85th minute to make it 2-2 and force the semi-final into a penalty shootout.

In the penalty shootout, Urban Academy proved more clinical, converting four penalties, while Clapham managed three goals and missed twice, sealing the Eastern Cape school’s place in the national final.

The victory puts Urban Academy one step away from the national U19 Boys title, following a dramatic comeback in which they twice fought back from behind.

Urban Academy will now turn their attention to the final at Giant Stadium Soshanguve, Pretoria, on Wednesday, where they will have the opportunity to cap their national campaign with the championship trophy.

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Basic Education Director-General Mathanzima Mweli has dismissed claims of tension between him and Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, insisting that differences over the contested Foundation Phase textbook catalogue have been wrongly portrayed as a personal battle between the department’s two most senior officials.

Mweli has also rejected reports that he refused to undergo a lifestyle audit, saying he had in fact proposed that he, Gwarube and Deputy Minister Reginah Mhaule voluntarily undergo the audits as a demonstration of their commitment to ethical and accountable leadership.

Mweli’s comments came amid the controversy surrounding the Foundation Phase National Catalogue for Grades 1 to 3, which has since been endorsed for implementation by the Council of Education Ministers (CEM), paving the way for provinces to procure learning and teaching materials from it for the 2027 academic year.

The decision followed consideration of the catalogue and reviews into its development by the Council of Education Ministers (CEM), which endorsed implementation on Friday.

‘Not a personal decision‘

Mweli told Inside Education, before the catalogue was approved, that the decision to support implementation of the catalogue was not his personal position, but that of the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM), which brings together senior national and provincial education officials.

He said portraying the dispute as one between himself and Gwarube overlooked the role of provinces, which hold the budgets and are responsible for purchasing textbooks.

“DBE doesn’t buy books. Books are bought by provinces,” he said.

“Who has the money to buy books? Where is the money?” Mweli asked.

Mweli, who chairs HEDCOM, said his role should not be confused with the collective position taken by the committee.

“I’m a member of HEDCOM but I’m not HEDCOM,” he said.

Asked whether the disagreement over the catalogue was therefore between HEDCOM and Gwarube rather than between himself and the minister, Mweli responded: “Correct. Correct. Yes.”

He also rejected suggestions of a personal falling-out with Gwarube.

“There is no shred of evidence of any fight between the two of us,” Mweli said, adding that he and the minister continued to communicate on other education matters.

Mweli said his own opinion on whether the catalogue should proceed was irrelevant because the position had been taken collectively.

“I have no view. My view is irrelevant. Because I don’t buy books,” he said.

“The view that is there is the view of HEDCOM.”

Lifestyle audit clarity

On Monday night, Mweli issued a statement rejecting “widespread media and public comment concerning my position on a lifestyle audit”. saying he had not refused to undergo such.

“That characterisation does not reflect my position. I support lifestyle audits in the public service, and I am willing to undergo one,” he said.

“In fact, I was the person who initially proposed to the Minister and Deputy Minister of Basic Education that the three of us voluntarily undergo lifestyle audits as a demonstration of our commitment to ethical and accountable leadership. We agreed to do so,” Mweli said.

He said he thereafter encouraged other senior managers, including deputy directors-general, to participate.

Mweli said he had also engaged the head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to begin putting arrangements in place for the SIU to conduct the audits before they were publicly presented as an instruction from Gwarube to senior DBE managers.

He said his subsequent concerns were not about whether he should undergo an audit, but about how his audit would be conducted, including the handling of confidential and personal information.

“They concern the manner in which the particular process relating to me is to be conducted, including the treatment of confidential and personal information and the safeguards applicable to the process,” Mweli said.

He said lifestyle audits involved sensitive personal and financial information and should comply with the applicable public-service framework governing confidentiality, fairness, independence, due care and professionalism.

“My raising concerns about that process should not be portrayed as a refusal to account or to submit to legitimate scrutiny,” Mweli said. 

He also rejected suggestions that his position on the audit raised questions about his integrity or responsibility for public funds.

“I reject that implication. My raising concerns about the manner in which the process is to be conducted does not alter my willingness to undergo the audit,” he said.

‘No public debate’

He said he would not publicly debate the details of the audit process because of its confidential nature.

“My focus remains on the responsibilities of my office, the work of the Department of Basic Education, and the interests of South Africa’s learners,” Mweli said.

On 19 September, the DBE announced that the 2026 Foundation Phase National Catalogue had been approved and endorsed and that provinces were empowered to use it immediately.

The department said procurement had already commenced.

According to the DBE, the decision followed a review process involving an Auditor-General of South Africa audit, an independent investigation and legal opinions from the department’s internal legal services and external Senior Counsel.

In a statement, the department said the reviews had confirmed the integrity of the process and found “NO FRAUD, NO FAVOURITISM, and therefore NO BASIS TO CANCEL (sic)”.

Recommendations arising from the reviews would, however, be incorporated into efforts to strengthen governance and administration around learning and teaching support materials while implementation continued.

The decision marks a significant shift from the position announced by Gwarube on 2 September, when she said the suspension would remain in place while the legal implications of findings from an independent investigation were considered.

At the time, the minister said the investigation had identified material areas of non-compliance, governance weaknesses and potential procurement and financial management risks.

She said the existing catalogue would remain available to provinces for the 2027 school year while the new catalogue underwent further legal scrutiny and remediation.

Competitive bidding concerns

Gwarube had previously raised concerns over the way the catalogue process departed from ordinary competitive bidding procedures.

In her May 2026 Budget Vote, she said a National Treasury assessment had been inconclusive but had raised questions over whether the deviation from normal competitive bidding had been properly justified and supported by the required records and approvals.

She subsequently ordered an independent external investigation.

The catalogue also became the subject of parliamentary scrutiny, with the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education resolving to refer the process to the Public Protector following concerns over procurement, the blind screening strategy and conflicting accounts from senior officials.

The catalogue is now listed on the department’s official learning and teaching support materials page as the 2026 Foundation Phase National Catalogue for Grades 1 to 3.

It covers materials for Home Language, First Additional Language, Mathematics, Life Skills and Coding and Robotics.

The DBE says the catalogue is intended to provide updated, curriculum-aligned materials while strengthening foundational literacy and access to newer curriculum areas.

One of the most significant changes concerns reading material.

The catalogue provides for 40 readers per class and a Core Reader for every learner, while reducing the number of listed titles from eight to three.

The department says the reduction is intended to allow more focused teacher development and subject-advisory support around a smaller number of approved resources.

It has also said the approach could create efficiencies through economies of scale and broaden participation in the publishing sector.
The catalogue process has previously faced gaps in some African languages.

In March, the DBE said it had identified 107 gaps across languages and invited publishers to submit material to address them, with significant shortages in IsiNdebele, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.

The DBE said it had already engaged provinces on procurement arrangements. “The priority now is delivery,” the department said.

It said the education sector would need to work together to ensure books were purchased and delivered as effectively as possible ahead of the new school year.

The catalogue forms part of a wider push to improve foundational learning.

Gwarube has previously announced that 10,000 Foundation Phase teachers would receive targeted literacy and numeracy training during 2026/27 as part of efforts to improve early-grade reading and mathematics.

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The U20 national team, Amajita, moved closer to securing a place in the COSAFA U20 semi-finals after beating Angola 2-0 in their second Group B match in Mozambique on Monday.

The defending champions continued the strong start to their title defence following a 3-0 victory over Lesotho in their opening match. The latest win takes Amajita to six points from two matches.

Captain Lazola Maku opened the scoring in the 13th minute after getting on the end of a low cross from Steven Mendes before firing into the top-right corner to give South Africa a 1-0 lead.

Mendes then turned goalscorer before half-time, converting from an Emile Witbooi delivery to double South Africa’s advantage.

The goal was Mendes’ third of the tournament after he scored twice in the opening victory over Lesotho.

South Africa took their two-goal advantage into the break and managed the second half effectively.

Angola struggled to create clear opportunities as Amajita maintained their clean sheet and saw out the match for another important victory.

The result leaves South Africa in a strong position in Group B as they continue their bid to defend their regional title.

Amajita will play their final Group B match against Eswatini on Wednesday at 12pm. The fixture will help determine the final group standings, with the three group winners and the best runner-up advancing to the semi-finals.

The COSAFA U20 tournament is also serving as a qualifier for the 2027 CAF U20 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana, with the two finalists earning qualification for the continental tournament.

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The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has reported an increase in rescue activity along parts of South Africa’s coastline as warmer weather and the start of the school holidays draw more people to beaches and other waterways.

The organisation on Monday urged swimmers, boaters, anglers and families to take additional precautions at beaches, swimming pools, rivers and dams as water activity increases.

“Summer should be a time to enjoy the water safely, but increased activity along the coastline, dams and rivers can also result in more people getting into difficulty. Many water-related emergencies can be prevented by planning ahead, choosing safer places to swim and supervising children closely,” NSRI Head of Communications Andrew Ingram said.

Swim where lifeguards are on duty

He advised people to swim at beaches where lifeguards are on duty and to remain between designated swimming flags.

He also warned against drinking alcohol before or during swimming or boating, saying it could impair judgement and physical ability and affect a person’s ability to supervise children.

The NSRI told beachgoers to familiarise themselves with rip currents and warned swimmers caught in one not to attempt to swim directly against it.

Instead, swimmers should float, raise an arm to attract attention and, where possible, swim parallel to the beach until clear of the current before using incoming waves to help them return to shore.

People boating, paddling or fishing from rocks should wear correctly fitted lifejackets, while anglers and others on the shoreline should avoid turning their backs on the sea.

Rescue buoys

The NSRI also urged members of the public who see someone in difficulty not to enter the water without flotation. They should alert a lifeguard or the NSRI and, where possible, throw the person a flotation device such as a Pink Rescue Buoy.

It said parents and caregivers should be particularly vigilant because drowning is often silent, with children in distress sometimes unable to splash, wave or call for assistance.

Young children should remain within arm’s reach when they are in water, including swimming pools, paddling pools and baths, while caregivers should avoid distractions such as mobile phones.

“Water safety starts before you leave home. Check where lifeguards will be on duty, make sure everyone knows what to do in an emergency and save the relevant emergency numbers on your phone. Most importantly, please actively supervise children whenever they are near water,” Ingram said.

The NSRI advised the public to save the national emergency number, 112, and its Emergency Operations Centre number, 087 094 9774, on their phones.

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A donation of 500 pairs of school shoes to learners in Mpumalanga is aimed at removing basic barriers to school attendance and participation, the provincial education department said on Monday.

The Mpumalanga Department of Education, in partnership with ABSA Bank, handed over the shoes to learners at Kwena Combined School in Emakhazeni Local Municipality.

The department said the donation formed part of ABSA’s Community Development and Corporate Social Investment initiative, which focuses on supporting learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“When a learner comes to school without proper shoes, especially during winter, their ability to concentrate and participate fully is compromised,” the department said.

“This intervention will ensure that 500 learners can walk to school with dignity and be fully present in the classroom. It directly supports our efforts to improve attendance and retention.”

The department said many learners at Kwena Combined School travel long distances to school each day and that the new shoes would make a significant difference.

The school’s principal, on behalf of the School Governing Body and parents, thanked the department and ABSA, saying partnerships of this nature gave hope to schools and showed learners that their education mattered to the broader community.

ABSA representatives also reiterated the bank’s commitment to education as part of its community development work.

The bank said education remained a key tool in breaking the cycle of poverty and that it would continue working with government to support vulnerable learners across the province.

The department said the initiative was aligned with its Rhandza Xikolo Xa Wena, or Love Your School, campaign, a flagship programme led by the Premier which calls on business, traditional leaders, faith-based organisations, alumni and community members to support schools.

The campaign is based on the principle of Babize Bonke, which encourages collective responsibility and volunteerism in addressing challenges faced by schools.

The department said it would continue seeking partnerships with the private sector and other stakeholders to address learner needs, including infrastructure, learning materials, support and wellbeing.

“As government, we cannot do it alone. The partnership with ABSA today demonstrates the value of collective action in addressing barriers that may affect learners’ participation in education,” the department said.

“Every contribution towards a learner is an investment in the future of Mpumalanga and South Africa.”

The department thanked ABSA for the donation and called on other private-sector partners to support schools through the Rhandza Xikolo Xa Wena campaign.

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Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has told South Africans to look beyond the political disputes and crises of the day and focus on reforms that can protect the country’s future by improving what education makes possible for every child.

Addressing the Cape Town Press Club on Monday, Gwarube said meaningful reform required the government to confront institutional weaknesses, protect public money and strengthen education from early childhood rather than relying on the matric pass rate as the main measure of success.

“Our children do not get a second childhood while we put our institutions in order. I came into this office to help change what education makes possible for a child — not simply to manage disputes about it,” Gwarube said.

She said this was the purpose of her “Strong Foundations, Strong Futures” strategy, which seeks to improve learning from the earliest years of a child’s education.

Gwarube said South Africa had made progress, including an 88% national matric pass rate in 2025, but added that this could not obscure deep weaknesses in foundational learning.

“Extra lessons and support for matric learners remain important. But support must begin much earlier. A child who struggles to read will struggle to learn from a textbook. A child who lacks confidence with numbers will find later Mathematics and Science increasingly difficult,” she said.

“I do not believe that a child in a poor community has less potential than a child in a wealthy one. I believe we have a responsibility to stop allowing unequal opportunities to decide how much of that potential is realised.”

She said the reform agenda was built around early childhood development, the Foundation Phase, language and literacy, teacher development, safer schools, infrastructure and stronger governance.

She said the government had registered more than 13,300 early learning centres in 2025, exceeding its target of 10,000, while the subsidy rate had increased from R17 to R24 per funded child per day.

The department was also targeting 10,000 Foundation Phase teachers for focused training in reading, writing and early Mathematics during 2026.

Gwarube said reform also meant confronting the way public money was spent, citing her decision to maintain the suspension of the new Foundation Phase National Catalogue after two final reports by independent investigating firm Rakoma identified serious weaknesses in the process.

The catalogue has been at the centre of controversy over Lighthouse Publishers, a relatively new company that secured a significant share of approved titles. Gwarube acknowledged that the investigation had not substantiated some of the allegations surrounding the process and that the reports recognised strengths in the assessment of learning materials, but said the wider review had also identified serious shortcomings.

The investigation found problems including undisclosed rules around price comparisons and how these would affect the allocation of orders, non-compliance with a compulsory supplier-document requirement and an extension and withdrawal of a submission deadline without the required approval.

The reports also raised potential financial misconduct implications, although Gwarube stressed that this did not amount to a finding of guilt against anyone.

“I chose to act on the findings and recommendations of the investigation reports I have received. I chose to protect public money. I chose to keep preparations for 2027 moving. I will not choose between getting books to children and protecting the integrity of the process. My responsibility is to do both,” she said.

She said preparations for the 2027 school year would continue, with provinces and schools purchasing the materials they needed using the existing catalogue as a reference while the legal implications of the investigation findings were considered.

Gwarube also rejected suggestions that insisting on proper procurement processes amounted to an attack on transformation.

She said she supported a publishing sector where emerging businesses, including black-owned and women-owned companies, had a fair opportunity to compete, but argued that transformation had to extend beyond contracts and reach classrooms.

“Transformation cannot stop at the contract. It must reach the classroom. For me, transformation means that a child in a rural village can receive the same quality of early education as a child in an affluent suburb,” she said.

She said the Government of National Unity also had a role to play in creating the stability needed for long-term reform, arguing that cooperation did not mean avoiding difficult questions.

“Stability is not the absence of difficult questions. It is the confidence that an institution will face them honestly and keep delivering. Addressing a weakness is not an attack on an institution; it is an investment in its future.”

She said the government also needed to measure education outcomes more honestly, with greater attention paid to reading, Mathematics, learner retention and subject performance rather than simply the final matric pass rate.

She highlighted the operationalisation of the National Education and Training Council as part of efforts to build reform that could survive political cycles.

The council has produced four substantial reports containing 33 recommendations covering foundational learning, school resourcing, assessment and progression, and reducing teachers’ administrative burden.

Gwarube said lasting reform would require political leaders to confront vested interests, acknowledge what was not working and remain guided by evidence.

“I did not become Minister to make powerful people comfortable. I became Minister to serve the children of South Africa,” the minister said.

She said the ultimate test of her office should not be how many policies or announcements it produced, but whether those interventions changed what children experienced in classrooms.

“The problems are real. They do not have to be permanent,” Gwarube said.

“Strong foundations. Strong futures. That is the work before us.”

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A 19-year-old Grade 10 learner was shot dead at Ndengezi Intermediate School near Pinetown on Monday.

KwaZulu-Natal police said the victim and the suspect were seen entering the school grounds together before the shooting. The suspect was reportedly dressed in the same school uniform as the learner.

The learner was shot several times and declared dead at the scene. Police have opened a murder case and said the motive for the killing was not yet known.

KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka said the department had received a preliminary report on the shooting.

“According to a preliminary report received by the Department, the male learner was shot on the school premises and subsequently succumbed to his injuries,” he said.

Police and education officials attended the school after the shooting, while forensic teams processed the scene.

“The loss of a learner is always devastating, but for such a tragedy to occur within the school environment is particularly distressing,” said Hlomuka.

“I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of this young learner. My heartfelt condolences go to the learner’s family, friends, fellow learners, educators and the entire Ndengezi Intermediate School community during this extremely difficult time.”

Police said the suspected shooter left the school after the attack and the investigation was continuing.

“The department will continue to provide the necessary support to the affected school community and work with all relevant stakeholders to promote safety in our schools,” said Hlomuka.

Earlier this year, Hlomuka said the province had experienced an increase in incidents of crime and criminality in and around schools, which he said was undermining efforts to maintain safe learning environments.

Police have not disclosed what may have led to Monday’s shooting and have not publicly identified the suspect.

The Education Department said it would avoid speculating on the circumstances of the killing while the police investigation continued.

“I urge everyone to allow law enforcement officials to conduct their investigation without interference,” Hlomuka said.

“I also appeal to members of the community to refrain from sharing unverified information, particularly on social media, as this may cause further pain and distress to the bereaved family and the school community.”

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Gauteng has intensified its crackdown on illegally operating independent schools, with 32 schools served with closure letters since the beginning of the year and two school directors arrested.

The figures were revealed by Gauteng MEC for Education, Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation Lebogang Maile during a media briefing on the state of independent schools in the province on Sunday.

According to the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), officials visited 61 schools suspected of operating illegally between January and September 2026, with 32 subsequently served with closure letters.

“Between January and September 2026, 61 schools were visited and 32 were served with closure letters. Of the schools dealt with in 2026, seven were found to have ceased operating, four subsequently applied for registration with the department and two school directors were arrested,” Maile said.

The crackdown comes as Gauteng’s independent school sector continues to expand, with the province now having 1,083 registered and operational independent schools, up from 961 in 2021.

“The department does not regard the closure of an illegal school as the end of the matter because the learners still require education,” it said.

When an institution is found to be operating unlawfully, it is instructed to cease operating and the relevant closure process is followed.

The GDE said it does not simply shut down illegal schools without considering the learners affected.

Following a closure, the relevant education district is required to work with parents to place affected learners in lawful schools, ensuring that they do not lose access to education.

Maile said concerns about illegal schools could be raised by parents, community members or other government institutions.

“Officials then visit the premises and verify the institution’s registration and compliance documents before determining whether it is operating lawfully,” he added.

The department has urged parents to verify the registration status of independent schools before enrolling their children or paying fees.

“A school building, uniform, website or advertisement does not on its own prove that an institution is legally operating,” the department said.

Parents are advised to request the school’s Education Management Information System (EMIS) registration certificate and ensure that the EMIS number and physical address correspond with the school their children will attend.

“While GDE registration gives an independent school legal authority to operate, Umalusi accreditation relates to quality assurance for schools offering qualifications that fall within its mandate,” Maile said.

The issue has become increasingly significant as Gauteng’s independent school sector continues to grow.

Maile said the province had 1,083 operational independent schools in 2026, compared with 961 in 2021 — an increase of 122 schools over five years.

“These institutions currently educate 379,727 learners and employ 24,974 educators.”

However, the sector’s growth has also brought an increase in complaints from parents and learners.

Between 2024 and August 6, 2026, the department received 3,688 cases relating to independent schools.

Of these, 550 concerned registration, 518 involved outstanding fees linked to suspension or expulsion, and 422 related to outstanding fees and the withholding of transfer certificates or learner reports.

“The department also received 458 disciplinary and bullying cases, 345 admission or refusal-to-re-enrol cases and 312 curriculum and assessment queries,” Maile added.

“The government has a responsibility to ensure that its processes are applied consistently and transparently.”

The department said it monitors registration, governance, financial management, teaching and learning, learner and educator attendance, safety and examination requirements.

Independent schools may also be subjected to unannounced departmental visits to monitor leadership, governance and curriculum delivery.

“Parents should check a school’s legal status before enrolling a child,” Maile said.

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Three University of Johannesburg (UJ) researchers have been recognised at the 2026 National Research Foundation (NRF) Awards, with Professor John Maina receiving his fourth A-rating and two emerging scholars honoured for research excellence.

The awards ceremony was held at the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, under the theme “Building an Inclusive, Impactful and Transformed Research Future”.

The theme reflects the NRF’s Vision 2030 and its five strategic pillars of Transformation, Innovation, Sustainability, Excellence and Impact.

Among this year’s UJ recipients were Maina and PhD researcher Anathi Msobo from the Faculty of Science, as well as Digital Media Design lecturer Nthabiseng Mabale, who is pursuing a PhD in Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Maina, a researcher in UJ’s Department of Zoology, received his fourth NRF A-rating.

An A-rating is awarded to researchers recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their fields, based on the quality and impact of their recent research. Each rating is valid for six years.

Maina’s work focuses on respiratory systems in animals and how they have evolved and adapted. He studies how different species exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide across aquatic and terrestrial environments.

His research uses technologies including three-dimensional computer reconstructions, micro-computed tomography scanning, microscopic cell imaging and detailed physical measurements.

More recently, he has been investigating the use of bird lungs and fish gills as bioindicators of environmental pollution. He is also studying ostrich eggshell structures and the development of the chorioallantoic membrane, which enables an embryo to exchange gases while developing inside the egg.

The work could help identify structural factors contributing to poor ostrich egg hatchability, with potential benefits for South Africa’s ostrich farming industry.

Mabale, a lecturer in UJ’s Department of Multimedia, received a Research Excellence Award for Next Generation Researchers.

She is pursuing a PhD in Media Studies at Wits University titled Fortification of Self-Reliance and Independence of Black South African Women in Informal Businesses.

Her research examines how digital tools can support women traders operating in Johannesburg’s Kwa Mai-Mai community.

She works with the traders as co-creators of knowledge, documenting their experiences, business practices and challenges while exploring ways digital technologies can strengthen economic self-reliance.

The research is funded through the NRF-FirstRand Empowerment Foundation Black Academics Advancement Programme, which supports Black academics pursuing doctoral qualifications.

Msobo, a PhD researcher in UJ’s Department of Biochemistry, also received a Research Excellence Award for Next Generation Researchers.

Her NRF-funded work investigates antiviral compounds in South African medicinal plants, including natural compounds with the potential to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, a protein the virus relies on to replicate.

She combines artificial intelligence, computational science, advanced chemistry and laboratory testing to accelerate the identification of potentially useful compounds.

The approach could contribute to antiviral drug discovery and pandemic preparedness while building expertise in biotechnology, metabolomics and computational drug discovery.

Delivering the keynote address at the ceremony, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Professor Blade Nzimande raised concerns about the concentration of research funding and infrastructure at historically stronger institutions.

According to Nzimande, about 63% of NRF funding goes to the 10 universities with the highest research outputs, while 83% of South African Research Chairs Initiative Chairs are hosted at top-output universities.

He said efforts were being made to broaden participation at historically disadvantaged institutions, universities of technology and newer universities.

Earlier this year, 41 new SARChI Chairs were awarded specifically to these institutions. The NRF has also begun implementing its University Programmes and Collaborations initiative to strengthen research and human-capital capacity at historically disadvantaged institutions.

“The issue is crucial not for posterity, but for practical reasons: to ensure our country, with its scarce resource base, makes full use of its institutional resources to reach deeper and wider into every corner of South Africa and unleash its full potential,” Nzimande said.

The 2026 NRF Awards also included Lifetime Achievement Awards for Professor Jonathan Jansen of Stellenbosch University’s Department of Education and Professor Helen Rees of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

UJ Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Letlhokwa George Mpedi said the awards reflected the university’s growing research profile.

“The NRF Awards represent a wonderful and prestigious recognition for any scholar; it is something to treasure. UJ has over the years shown a stronger performance in these prestigious awards, and this year is not different,” Mpedi said.

UJ Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation Professor Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya said the recipients reflected the work being done by established and emerging scholars at the university.

“The awards show the quality of the research, not only for its own sake but for societal impact and sustainability. As a university, we are immensely proud of the achievements and of the work of our scholars, and we hope the awards will inspire more students,” she said.

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Durban University of Technology (DUT) has finalised the allocation of a R1.15 million Motsepe Foundation donation to students burdened by historical debt, months after the funding was provided to the university’s Student Representative Council.

DUT said the contribution was made at the beginning of the year and was aimed at providing financial relief to students facing outstanding historical fees.

“The payment process for students identified through DUT’s Financial Aid processes has now been finalised, marking an important milestone in the initiative and providing support to students affected by historical debt,” the university said.

“The donation was received by representatives of the DUT SRC, with the funding directed towards assisting students identified as beneficiaries through the relevant processes,” it said.

“This contribution will make a meaningful difference to students who have been carrying historical debt. As the SRC, we recognise the responsibility that comes with managing this support and remain committed to ensuring that the initiative reaches the students it is intended to assist,” said SRC Finance Officer Thalente Mteshane.

Mteshane, who serves as SRC Finance Officer for the 2025 to 2027 term, said partnerships such as the one with the Motsepe Foundation were important in addressing challenges faced by students.

“Financial challenges can place significant pressure on students and can affect their ability to focus on their studies. Support such as this provides much-needed relief and gives students an opportunity to continue working towards completing their qualifications,” he said.

The R1.15 million contribution follows a R1.1 million donation made by the Motsepe Foundation to the DUT SRC in 2024.

That funding was allocated to initiatives supporting students with historical debt, food security, gender-based violence, mental health and peace building.

The Foundation has also previously provided funding to assist DUT students with registration.

“For students, historical debt can present significant challenges, particularly where outstanding fees affect their ability to progress or complete their academic journey. The latest intervention therefore provides important support to students identified through the University’s Financial Aid processes.”

DUT said the initiative also demonstrated the value of partnerships between universities, student leadership and external organisations.

“DUT appreciates the Motsepe Foundation for its continued support of the University’s students and its commitment to initiatives that contribute towards student success.”

“The partnership demonstrates the value of collaboration between higher education institutions, student leadership structures and external stakeholders in addressing challenges that can affect students’ ability to succeed.”

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Gauteng has 405,627 available school places for the 2027 academic year, but the province says a mismatch between where capacity exists and where families want their children to attend is fuelling overcrowding at popular schools.

The Gauteng Department of Education received 805,688 applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 for 2027, representing 346,877 individual learners after accounting for parents who applied to multiple schools.

Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile said at a press briefing on Sunday about online placements and admissions for 2027 that the figures show that the province’s problem is not simply a shortage of school places, but the concentration of demand in particular areas and schools.

“We have 405,627 available spaces. So in theory, we don’t have a problem,” Maile said.

However, he said the available capacity could not simply be used to accommodate learners because parents’ demand is heavily concentrated around certain schools.

At Grade 8 level, Hoërskool Langenhoven in Tshwane West received 3,462 applications, while Alberton High School received 2,756, Katlehong Secondary School 2,747, Katlehong Engineering School of Specialisation 2,573 and Parktown Boys’ High School 2,448.

At Grade 1 level, Laerskool Akasia received 1,355 applications, followed by Palmridge Primary School with 1,330, Alston Primary School with 1,207, Lakeside Primary School with 1,162 and Stoneridge Primary School with 1,153.

Maile said the department could not move learners from one part of the province to another simply because another school had available classrooms.

“I went to a school in Sebokeng. I think they’ve got space for about 500. There’s space for about 500, but it’s in Sebokeng. And then if you go to a school here in Alex, there are 500 more or 1,000 more, but Alex is here. So you can’t take those kids from Alex to Sebokeng because they stay here in Alex,” he said.

Maile said the department needed to rethink how existing capacity across Gauteng’s public schools is used, rather than continually expanding schools that are already popular.

He said the pressure was particularly difficult when thousands of parents selected a school that could accommodate only a fraction of the applications.

The department said placement would therefore have to follow its prescribed criteria, including the learner’s home address and proximity to the school.

Other factors include whether the learner has a sibling at the school, the learner’s previous school in the case of Grade 8 applicants, the parent’s work address and whether the learner lives within 30 kilometres of the school.

Where none of the schools selected by a parent has available space, the department may offer a place at the next closest school with capacity.

Maile said the concentration of learners at popular schools also had consequences beyond admissions.

“Unfortunately, where there’s overcrowding, there’s many other social problems because sometimes kids don’t have enough furniture and that becomes a source of fights amongst learners. There’s bullying, gangsterism, and all those issues,” he said.

The province is also facing pressure to increase capacity as Gauteng’s population grows and new residential areas develop.

Maile said the department had identified the need to build at least 200 schools, which he estimated would require at least R35 billion.

“Those schools include some of the schools that are just temporary schools,” he said.

The department said it was considering a combination of permanent infrastructure, public-private partnerships, alternative construction methods and mobile classrooms to respond to demand.

It is also considering whether leasing mobile classrooms could be more practical than buying them in areas where enrolment pressures are temporary or likely to shift.

At the same time, Maile said the province needed to make better use of existing facilities, including underused libraries, while expanding hybrid and e-learning.

“If you’ve got, for instance, libraries, which are not utilised and classrooms are full, you can still have kids going to those libraries and we teach them from there,” he said.

The department said placement offers for learners with complete applications are scheduled to begin on 15 October.

Parents will receive offers by SMS and will have seven days to accept or decline an offer. Placement will continue through the remainder of the year as the department works to accommodate all learners.

Maile said the goal was to have as many learners placed as possible before January to reduce the disruption that typically accompanies the start of the school year.

The department has also warned parents against paying people who claim they can secure school places, saying such payments amount to corruption and cannot guarantee admission.

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The Cape Peninsula University of Technology has extended its 2026 academic programme after losing about three weeks of teaching time during a student shutdown, with the revised calendar now expected to run until 14 December.

“Senate, at its special meeting, considered the proposed adjustments to the 2026 academic calendar following the disruption of the academic programme and the loss of approximately three weeks of tuition,” CPUT management said in a statement.

“Its intention was to restore the academic year and to safeguard the students’ graduation prospects across all qualification levels.”

The shutdown began in early August over a range of financial and governance grievances, with CPUT’s proposed 2027 Financial Recovery Plan at the centre of the dispute.

Students objected to proposals that could have required some returning students to make an upfront payment of as much as R7,000 to register in 2027. Other grievances included historical student debt, residence costs, the NSFAS accommodation funding cap, access to academic records and what student leaders said was inadequate consultation over the proposed financial changes.

CPUT initially said the plan was still under consideration and that no final decisions had been made. Council withdrew the draft plan on 12 August for further consultation, but the protest action continued.

READ| This is why CPUT students are protesting

The unrest later escalated, with CPUT reporting damage across three campuses, including broken windows, a burnt vehicle, damaged classroom, flooded buildings and damage to security equipment and the recently restored IKAMVA building.

On 17 August, the Old Education building at the Bellville campus was set alight. CPUT described the incident as an arson attack and the following day ordered all campuses closed, suspended academic activities and instructed students to leave university residences.

Student leaders rejected suggestions that they supported the destruction of university property.

Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela subsequently sent a departmental team to facilitate talks between university management, Council and student leaders.

READ| Manamela steps in as arson, violent student protests shut down CPUT campuses

At a Special Council meeting on 29 August, CPUT unconditionally withdrew the draft Financial Recovery Plan and agreed that students who had accumulated debt because of the NSFAS accommodation cap should be allowed to receive their academic transcripts and certificates.

The same meeting asked Senate to consider adjustments to the 2026 calendar to “rescue the academic project”.

Under the revised programme, the scheduled recess from 4 to 14 September will remain unchanged.

Tuition will be extended by two weeks, while faculties will recover the equivalent of another five teaching days through arrangements suited to their disciplines.

“Based on the current scenario the revised adjusted calendar will complete by 14 December 2026,” the university said.

Implementation is dependent on academic activities resuming on 14 September.

CPUT said operational support departments would continue cleaning and repairing damaged facilities to ensure campuses were ready for students and staff to return.

Reassessments and special assessments will be accommodated during the existing January 2027 reassessment period, while the summer graduation scheduled for 10 December will proceed as planned.

Additional days worked by academic staff will be credited to their leave, subject to further discussions and finalisation through the university’s human capital processes.

“Staff who complete their academic responsibilities earlier, could commence leave sooner by arrangement with their Heads of Department,” the statement said.

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Nearly half of older learners who leave school before completing Grade 12 are affected by financial pressure or barriers to progression, with a lack of money for fees emerging as the single biggest stated reason for non-attendance among 16 to 18-year-olds.

The findings are contained in the Department of Basic Education’s latest analysis of the 2024 General Household Survey (GHS), released in August, which shows that while the country has made progress in keeping children in school, “the drop-out problem in South Africa is mainly among older learners”.

According to the report, 23% of 16 to 18-year-olds who were not attending an educational institution in 2024 said the main reason was a lack of money for fees. A further 12% said they had not been accepted for enrolment.

The report found that the risk of dropping out rises sharply in the later grades.

For the most recent cohort, covering young people born between 1998 and 2000 and surveyed between 2022 and 2024, the grade-specific dropout rate increased from 11.9% after Grade 10 to 20.9% after Grade 11. By comparison, dropout rates remained below 4% from Grades 1 to 6.

The report states that dropout rates are “low in the primary school grades and increase with each grade, peaking after Grade 11”.

This means learners are generally more likely to remain in school during their primary years, but the pressure becomes much greater as they approach the end of secondary school.

It also found that 29.8% of those in the latest cohort who reported completing Grade 11 did not complete any further education and were therefore assumed to have dropped out.

The DBE said, however, that the reasons learners give for not attending school should not automatically be regarded as the underlying causes of dropout.

“The main predictor of dropping out is poor quality early education,” the report states.

It explains that the reasons reported by learners may instead be immediate triggers for leaving school, particularly among those already struggling academically.

The report notes that these factors may not necessarily result in dropout among learners who are progressing well, “especially if they are in a good quality school”.

The findings come against a general improvement in school survival rates. Among young people aged 22 to 26, the proportion completing Grade 12 increased from 38% among those born between 1979 and 1981 to 60.3% among those born between 1998 and 2000.

The report says the improvement in survival rates is particularly evident among younger generations. For the latest cohort, the survival rate was 92.2% by Grade 9, 86.5% by Grade 10 and 76.2% by Grade 11, before falling to 60.3% at Grade 12.

Overall, the number of children aged seven to 18 who were out of school declined from about 435,292 in 2013 to approximately 405,718 in 2024.

Among 16 to 18-year-olds, the number fell from about 325,166, or 11%, in 2013 to approximately 265,723, or 8.6%, in 2024.

The financial pressure on older learners nevertheless stands out in the 2024 findings. This is despite the expansion of the no-fee school policy, which has increased the proportion of public-school learners paying no school fees from about 50% in 2009 to approximately 71% in 2024.

“The main reason (97,5%) given for not paying fees by learners in public schools was that the school did not ask for fees,” the report states.

The increase in no-fee schooling means that the cost of school fees is not affecting all learners in the same way. However, the GHS findings show that money remains a barrier for a significant group of older learners who are already outside the education system.

The proportion of seven to 15-year-olds outside the education system has remained relatively stable at around 1.2%.

Among seven to 15-year-olds, disability was the main reason identified for non-attendance. The report notes, however, that about 87% of learners with disabilities do attend an educational institution.

A smaller group of learners also said they were out of school because they regarded education as having no value.

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The University of South Africa (Unisa) has appointed Professor Mpho Ngoepe as its new Vice-Principal for Teaching, Learning, Community Engagement and Student Support.

Ngoepe, a C2-rated researcher by the National Research Foundation (NRF), will take up the position on 1 October following approval of his appointment by the university council.

His appointment was made after the council considered reports and recommendations from the Selection Committee, as well as advice from the Executive Committees of the Senate and Institutional Forum.

Ngoepe has more than 28 years of academic, professional and leadership experience in library and information services, higher education, research, archives and records management, corporate governance and community engagement.

He joined Unisa in August 2012 and has held several senior academic and leadership positions at the university, including Director of the School of Arts, Acting Deputy Executive Dean, Head of the Department of Information Science and Head of the Centre for Applied Information and Communication.

He currently serves as Acting Vice-Principal for Research, Postgraduate Studies, Innovation and Commercialisation.

Unisa said his new portfolio would draw on his experience in academic leadership, research, postgraduate supervision, professional development and knowledge creation.

Ngoepe has published more than 100 journal articles, seven conference proceedings, 11 book chapters and three academic books. His research has focused on archives and records management, digital records, corporate governance, indigenous knowledge and languages, literacy and freedom of information.

His international academic standing was recognised in 2023 when he was included among the top 2% of scientists worldwide for career impact in a ranking by Elsevier and Stanford University based on authors published in Scopus-indexed journals.

Between 2013 and 2018, Ngoepe served as Director of Team Africa for the International Project on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES) Trust, coordinated by the University of British Columbia in Canada.

During that period, the Africa team conducted research on digital records and archival education, including compiling a directory of higher education institutions offering archival studies in 38 African countries.

In 2016, the International Council on Archives appointed Ngoepe to convene a meeting of archival educators from across Africa, contributing to the organisation’s education strategy for the continent.

He has also supervised 28 master’s and 34 doctoral students to completion.

Ngoepe has also contributed to the promotion of African languages and literature. He has published two award-winning anthologies of Northern Sotho short stories, which were recommended for Grade 8 learners by the Limpopo Department of Education. He also authored a biography of 2012 Comrades Marathon champion Ludwick Mamabolo.

His professional leadership has included roles in the South African Society of Archivists, the Eastern and Southern African Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives, the National Archives Advisory Council, the Gauteng Provincial Archives Advisory Council and the Archival Education Research Institute.

He has received several awards, including the IVAISLIP/SABINET Information Officer of the Year Award in 2004, recognition from the South African Human Rights Commission and Open Democracy Advice Centre in 2007 for his work in implementing the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the Unisa Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in Research in 2020 and the South African Society of Archivists Lifetime Achiever Award in 2022.

Unisa principal and vice-chancellor Professor Puleng LenkaBula said Ngoepe’s experience would be important as the university pursued its strategic priorities.

“Unisa wishes Professor Ngoepe every success in this important new role, which carries the significant responsibility of accelerating the pace of cultivating the Catalytic Niche Areas,” LenkaBula said.

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