Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has called for a review of the current scholar transport system, citing loopholes and minimal government control as dangerous, and urging stronger, centralised state intervention.
Lesufi was speaking to the media in Sedibeng following a tragic scholar transport accident in Vanderbijlpark on Monday, 19 January, which claimed the lives of 12 learners.
“There must be a mechanism not only to identify them, but to find a way of ensuring that we can account for their behaviour and control,” Lesufi said.
“You can see from this incident that society is asking government and the public sector why scholar transport has been left as a private arrangement. It is quite clear that this private arrangement does not work.”
Lesufi confirmed that the taxi driver involved in the crash, who was operating without a valid permit after his Professional Driving Permit (PDP) expired in November 2025, has been arrested and is expected to appear in court soon.
Meanwhile, the truck driver involved in the collision and his assistant have both been discharged from hospital and are expected to provide detailed statements to police. Lesufi added that only two learners remain in ICU.
Between 12 and 18 January, the provincial government conducted an intensive evaluation of scholar transport across Gauteng.
During this period, 353 handwritten notices were issued to non-compliant scholar transport vehicles in Tshwane, amounting to fines totalling R511,000.
In Johannesburg, authorities issued 432 notices to operators who failed to comply with regulations for transporting learners, with fines amounting to R696,000.
Lesufi said these proactive measures were undertaken ahead of the start of the academic calendar to ensure learner safety, resulting in notices, arrests and the discontinuation of unsafe vehicles across the province.
“We have discontinued 14 buses in Tshwane, 68 in Johannesburg and 11 in Ekurhuleni. In total, 93 buses were stopped from transporting our children using our proactive method of inspecting vehicles before the school calendar resumed,” Lesufi said.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube echoed Lesufi’s call for reform, saying scholar transport vehicles should be clearly identifiable through stickers, branding and reporting numbers to curb reckless driving.
“It is also about how best we can incorporate those who are providing private transport services into the framework, but in a way that they can be registered and identified,” Gwarube said.
She added that government currently procures service providers on behalf of schools to oversee compliance, roadworthiness and prevent overcrowding.
“In the current fiscal reality, it is not possible to immediately say that government will own buses for all schools,” Gwarube said.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) achieved a 100% pass rate in the 2025 NSC exams, extending a multi-year record of academic performance and highlighting the role of a holistic, trauma-informed education model for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.
OWLAG is officially recognised as a trauma-informed school, a model that acknowledges the effects of abuse, poverty, abandonment and other adverse childhood experiences on learning.
In an interview with Inside Education, Executive Director Gugu Ndebele described the achievement as both emotional and affirming, given the socio-economic realities many learners face.
Ndebele said the girls often come from households earning less than R10,000 a month and arrive with schooling gaps and limited access to health and social services.
“It’s always emotional for me, because what it says to me is that our girls in particular are strong,” Ndebele said of the results.
She said a defining feature of the academy is its continued support after learners leave school.
Through a foundation linked to OWLAG, graduates receive a comprehensive “care package” when they enter university, including help with accommodation deposits, monthly stipends, medical aid, access to psychological services, and dedicated mentors at each institution.
“All of them have got mentors so that they help with the transition, and they stay with them until they finish university,” she said.
“But they have to pass, if you stumble a bit we might suspend it, but you can come back.”
The academy also maintains close contact with universities, faculties and alumni networks to help students adjust to the demands of tertiary education.
Teachers told Inside Education about the preparation behind the 2025 cohort’s results, including the discipline and commitment they said learners brought to the final stretch of matric.
“The girls were very driven. They were very keen. They showed up, which was quite exciting, just to see how differently they also just showed up for themselves,” said OWLAG Head of Mathematics, Brian Buthelezi.
Head of English at the academy, Radeshree Naidoo, who teaches grades 11 and 12, said she was “very proud” of the multiple distinctions obtained for the language.
“There was lots of intensive work — even after school and after our core English lessons — during which we had to make sure that learners got that extra or additional support, so that they would be exam-ready and perform the way they performed,” Naidoo said.
English teacher Lettie Tervit said language presented an early challenge for many learners, particularly those who did not enter the academy with an English home language background.
“Many of them came from primary schools where they did not do English as a home language, so it was a major adjustment for them,” Tervit said.
“Throughout their journey, it’s been a team effort, just putting in the extra time with them, giving them grace and love and acceptance — and it works”.
Sharne Geysers, who is also an English teacher, highlighted the role of parents and the school’s approach to communication with families, particularly those from rural areas, in attaining positive, holistic outcomes.
“The social workers are basically our connection with the parents because the parents from many rural areas, for example, struggle to hear what we are saying because we don’t speak English the way they are used to hearing English,” Geysers said.
“We have a good relationship with the parents. We do communicate with them, but we also use the social workers quite a bit.”
Besides academic performance, Geysers said teachers also focused on the well-being of learners, including “their physical safety and their nutrition”.
“We understand that you can’t just teach a child, because they get triggered by many things. Our teachers and all of us are trained to be able to recognise the triggers and regulate the child”.
Ndebele likened the approach to preparing fertile soil before planting a seed, saying that nutrition, safety, emotional wellbeing and stability must be established for learning to flourish.
She said the academy’s trauma-informed approach could be replicated more widely if education was treated as a central national priority, and called for stronger collaboration between government departments — including health, public works, water and sanitation, social services and youth care centres — to support schools as community hubs.
“People don’t realise that education is probably the [country’s] most important resource, and that our economy is not going to grow unless we invest in education,” she said.
Ndebele said the academy had already been sharing its trauma-informed practices through workshops with government departments and other schools, and had plans to scale the model through partnerships.
While stressing the importance of educating girls, she cautioned against sidelining boys in the process.
“If you educate a woman — it’s really not just a slogan — you educate a nation. Women, by nature, are nurturers. When you invest in them, you know you’re investing in people who are interested in the growth of the country,” she said.
“[If] you leave the boys behind, you are creating a disgruntled and disillusioned adult male. As we invest in girls, we must understand that the boy child is just as important,” she said.
Build One South Africa (BOSA) on Tuesday urged the government to launch a nationwide inquiry into the country’s scholar transport system after the deaths of 14 learners in a crash near Vanderbijlpark on Monday.
“The tragic and wholly preventable deaths of 14 young learners this week, who lost their lives while being transported to school in a scholar transport vehicle, have exposed the urgent need for stricter safety enforcement and proper oversight in the scholar transport system,” BOSA spokesperson Roger Solomons said in a statement.
The crash happened early on Monday morning when a privately operated scholar transport vehicle collided with a truck in the Vanderbijlpark area of Johannesburg. At least 11 children were declared dead at the scene, with reports indicating others died of their injuries later.
Investigators are examining possible road-safety and compliance issues, including whether the vehicle was overloaded. The driver of the crash, according to Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane, had previously been reprimanded for reckless driving.
Solomons said BOSA wanted Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube “to at once launch a nationwide inquiry into the entire scholar transport system, covering both publicly subsidised and privately arranged scholar transport”.
“The inquiry must interrogate, at minimum: The screening, training, and vetting of scholar transport drivers; the roadworthiness and maintenance of vehicles; the enforcement of consequences for reckless and negligent driving; the widespread and dangerous practice of overcrowding [and] oversight and accountability mechanisms across provinces,” he said.
Gwarube told Parliament last year that 667 000 learners make use of government-subsidised scholar transport, while a further 2.8 million learners rely on private scholar transport arranged by parents. Solomons said that at the time, Gwarube said the government wanted to move more learners to scholar transport.
“If that is indeed the goal, then government has a clear responsibility to first fix the system. Expanding a broken and unsafe system without urgent reform would be irresponsible,” he said.
He said that if the minister did not act, BOSA would pursue other accountability measures, including “a full review of the National Learner Transport Policy of 2015” and “a Parliamentary Inquiry led by the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, in terms of section 55 of the Constitution”.
Solomons also pointed to a South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) investigation into the North West province’s scholar transport programme, saying the commission found systemic failures that “amounted to serious violations of human rights, particularly affecting poor and rural children,” including situations in which learners were exposed to unsafe conditions that undermined access to education.
South Africa’s failure to get children reading and counting in the early years amounts to a “national emergency” that threatens the country’s future, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube warned as the 2026 Basic Education Sector Lekgotla started on Tuesday in Gauteng.
The three-day gathering has brought together national and provincial education authorities, teacher unions, education bodies and development partners to reflect on system performance and set priorities for the year ahead.
Gwarube used her opening address to shift the spotlight away from end-of-school results and to what she said was the weakest point in the education system — early learning.
She said persistent literacy and numeracy failures in the foundation phase continue to shape poor learning outcomes, learner dropout, and limited access to science, mathematics and technical subjects later in the system.
“This is not merely an education challenge. It is a national emergency that demands urgent and decisive action,” Gwarube said.
At the start of her address, the minister also paid tribute to the 14 learners who died in a road accident in Gauteng on Monday, describing the loss of young lives so early in the school year as “incredibly heart-breaking” and saying it had “shaken me to the core”.
She that improved matric results, including the strong performance of the class of 2025, should not mask deep structural problems at the start of the schooling journey.
“You don’t create a matric pass rate in matric,” she said, adding that learning outcomes are determined “far beyond when children get to matric”.
Gwarube called for a shift that fully embeds early learning from birth to age nine within the basic education system, with particular emphasis on Grade R to Grade 3 as the foundation for reading, numeracy and critical thinking.
“If we fail our children during this critical period, we fail them throughout the education journey,” she told delegates.
She also outlined plans to strengthen inclusive education, expand mother tongue-based bilingual learning, review teacher post-provisioning norms and improve school safety and learner wellbeing.
“Quality early learning is not optional. It is the cornerstone of lifelong achievement,” the minister said.
The Lekgotla is expected to conclude on Thursday, with discussions aimed at translating policy commitments into practical interventions to strengthen foundational learning and stabilise the education system.
The death toll from a scholar transport crash near Vanderbijlpark has risen to 14 after a learner died in hospital on Monday evening.
The crash took place early Monday morning, when a private minibus taxi collided with a truck.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the minibus taxi was transporting learners to five different schools, including both primary and high schools.
At the time of the crash, the Toyota Quantum was overloaded, carrying 17 learners instead of the certified 14 occupants, according to police.
This was not the first time the driver had driven recklessly. Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane confirmed that the driver had previously been reprimanded for reckless driving.
Eleven schoolchildren died at the scene, three other learners later succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
According to an eyewitness who was overtaken by the scholar transport taxi, the driver overtook his vehicle and four other cars before colliding with the truck.
The minibus taxi driver is currently in hospital receiving medical treatment. Police have opened a case of culpable homicide.
The European Union on Monday committed about R95.7 million toward a national programme to help prevent and respond to bullying and gender-based violence in South African schools, during the Basic Education Department’s Back-to-School Campaign at Eldorado Secondary School, Johannesburg.
EU Ambassador to South Africa, Dr Sandra Kramer, said the funding reflected the bloc’s commitment to learner safety and wellbeing and formed part of its long-standing cooperation with the country.
“We partner with the Republic of South Africa in the field of education because education matters,” she said.
During her keynote address, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube thanked the EU for its donation and said that intimidation, violence, and abuse undermined learning outcomes and the dignity of learners. She called for consistent prevention and response measures in schools.
“We welcome this contribution and we commit to ensuring that it delivers real impact in the lives of our learners and in the lives of others around the country”, Gwarube said.
She said international partnerships have sent a strong message that learner safety is a global priority and that “South Africa is not alone in this fight”.
A public commitment would be signed with learners, education leaders, and partners to reinforce accountability and action in creating safer schools, she said.
“As a government, we are clear. Schools must be places of care, discipline, and respect. Learners must feel protected by adults and that they are entrusted with their education”.
Gwarube acknowledged that schools cannot address these challenges alone and called for collective action involving parents, communities, law enforcement, and social partners.
She encouraged learners who experience bullying to speak out, warned perpetrators that such behaviour would not be tolerated, and criticised the silence of bystanders, who enable abusers and fail to protect victims.
“Being brave sometimes means standing up for somebody else, and gender-based violence is one of the greatest threats to the safety and well-being of our learners, particularly girls”, she said.
The funding will strengthen prevention, education, psychosocial support, referral pathways, and school-based interventions to protect school learners.
“The European Union stands with you in solidarity. Every child, regardless of geography, can learn in peace and dignity,” Kramer said.
Last week, the Minister of Basic Education announced that the Matric Class of 2025 had made history by achieving the highest pass rate in our country’s history. More than 650,000 learners passed the National Senior Certificate, achieving a pass rate of 88%.
We congratulate all the learners and their teachers, families and communities for this great achievement. We applaud every learner who sat these exams.
The matric results have shown a steady improvement over many years, both in the quantity and the quality of the achievements. They have contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of South Africans older than 20 who have a matric qualification, increasing from 30% in 2002 to 52% in 2024.
This outstanding achievement shows the value of the investment we are making in education and the efforts we have made to ensure that all children, regardless of their background and gender, have access to quality education.
Global experience has shown that one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty is to ensure that girl children receive a good education.
It is therefore significant that in 2025 more girls sat for the matric exams than boys, and that the pass rates of boys and girls were much the same.
A higher proportion of girls attained admission to Bachelor studies than boys, and nearly twice as many obtained distinctions. This bodes well for the continuation of their studies at universities and colleges.
It is also significant that more than two-thirds of all bachelor passes came from schools in the most disadvantaged communities, classified as quintiles 1-3.
This is both a testament to the determination of these learners and their teachers, and to the effectiveness of policies like no-fee schools and the child support grant.
Taken together with the expansion in recent years of funding for tertiary students from poor backgrounds, these results give us encouragement that many of these young people will be able to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
We are encouraged by the fact that 90% of learners with special education needs passed matric and 52% achieved bachelor passes, both higher than the national average. Our task is now to ensure that more learners with special needs are able to write matric exams.
As we applaud these great results, we must acknowledge that challenges remain.
Of the 1.2 million children who started grade one in 2014, only 778,000 made it through to grade 12 in 2025. That’s nearly half a million young people who left school before finishing. As we strive to improve the quality of our matric results, we must work harder to ensure that more children complete their schooling.
Another challenge is the drop in performance in subjects like mathematics. While more learners are taking these subjects, we have seen a drop in the pass rates for mathematics and accounting. These are subjects that our learners need to excel at if they are to succeed in a rapidly changing economy.
In working to address these challenges, we are starting with the foundations of learning. In the same week that the results came out for the class of 2025, the class of 2037 started their first day of grade one.
From this moment, they are starting their preparations for matric and beyond.
That is why are placing greater emphasis and making more investment into the early years of schooling. We have made Grade R compulsory and embarked on an ambitious drive to register and provide subsidies to more early childhood development centres.
We are strengthening early grade reading, improving teaching materials and focusing on teacher development in the early grades.
By investing in children at the start of their school career, by giving them a solid educational foundation, we are preparing them for success.
We are working to ensure that they all finish their schooling, that they excel in matric and that they go on to thrive in everything they do.
The achievements of the Class of 2025 must inspire and encourage all the years of learners that are to follow.
Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Peace Mabe has congratulated the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) Sailing Academy after its youth-crewed yacht, Alexforbes Angel Wings, won first place on handicap in the 2025 Cape2Rio Yacht Race.
The team – from Masiphumelele, Khayelitsha, Grassy Park, and Athlone — completed the 3300 nautical miles of transatlantic crossing in 19 days, overcoming technical challenges in the Atlantic Ocean to secure a result that drew national attention and boosted South Africa’s profile in elite offshore sailing.
“This victory is about far more than winning a race,” said Mabe on Sunday.
“It is about young sailors who were given the platform to apply their training in a real-world environment, make critical decisions in difficult conditions, and support one another when things did not go according to plan. The RCYC Sailing Academy, through this team, has shown the world what South African youth can achieve when talent is matched with structure, discipline and belief.”
The deputy minister said the Cape2Rio Yacht Race remained one of South Africa’s most prestigious offshore sporting events, requiring stamina, technical skill, psychological resilience and the ability to navigate unpredictable sea and weather systems over thousands of nautical miles.
Official race communications showed the crew held a strong advantage for much of the race and remained competitive after a boom failure during a gybe in the early hours of Saturday, January 10, while leading by about 25 hours. After an assessment, the team continued racing by re-hoisting the mainsail without a boom.
“What stands out about this achievement is not only the result, but the manner in which it was achieved,” said the deputy minister.
“It speaks to the maturity of a young crew that stayed focused, calm and strategic under pressure. This is a victory that belongs to the team, their coaches, their families, the RCYC Sailing Academy, and every South African who believes in the power of sport to transform lives.”
Quoting from the Constitution, Mabe said South Africa was founded on values that include “human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms.”
“These are not abstract words in a document,” she said. “They are a national promise. And we honour that promise when young South Africans — regardless of background — are given fair access to opportunity, the support to grow, and the chance to excel, including in sporting spaces that shape their futures.”
“This is a victory for all South Africans and it deserves to be recognised as one of the year’s significant international sporting achievements,” she said.
“It is especially meaningful that this result comes from a youth crew that demonstrated courage, composure and collective responsibility in one of the world’s most unforgiving sporting environments.”
“The RCYC Sailing Academy has delivered a result that will inspire the next generation. Alexforbes Angel Wings are champions, and their story will encourage young South Africans to dream bigger, train harder, and believe that they belong on the world stage.”
The death toll from a scholar transport crash near Vanderbijlpark has risen to 13, the Gauteng Department of Education said on Monday afternoon.
“All information remains preliminary as investigations continue,” the department added.
Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane said he was “deeply devastated” by the crash, which occurred at around 7am when a private scholar transport vehicle collided with a side tipper truck on Fred Droste Road.
“It really is a tragic day for us as the Department and the province. We extend our deepest condolences to the learners, families, and school communities affected. We call for greater vigilance when it comes to scholar transports, particularly private scholar transport,” said Chiloane.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said she had learned “with deep sadness” of the crash.
“The Department of Basic Education stands ready to provide psychosocial support to affected learners, educators, and families, in collaboration with the Gauteng Department of Education,” Gwarube said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a statement in which he addressed the crash and the weekend violence on the Cape Flats.
He said he was saddened by the loss of life of children in both incidents and offered his “deepest sympathies to all families and communities concerned”.
“Our children are the nation’s most precious assets and we must do all we can – from observing the rules of the road to the quality of service providers appointed to transport scholars – to protect learners.”
The president said national and provincial authorities would provide families and schools with psychosocial support.
The Department of Correctional Services announced on Monday that its correctional services schools achieved an overall 94.4% pass rate in the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, surpassing the national 88% pass rate recorded by the Department of Basic Education.
The announcement was made at an awards ceremony at the Goodwood Correctional Facility in Cape Town.
Minister Pieter Groenewald said the results highlighted the transformative power of education, even within correctional environments.
“We gather not merely to announce results, but to celebrate resilience, discipline and educational excellence,” Groenewald said.
According to the department, 180 learners from 18 correctional services schools sat for the NSC examinations in 2025. Fifteen schools achieved a 100% pass rate, up from 13 schools in 2024, while learners collectively earned 132 distinctions.
Two schools — Usethubeni Correctional School in Durban-Westville and Baviaanspoort Correctional Centre School in Gauteng — have now maintained a 100% pass rate for ten consecutive years. The Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre School also recorded a full pass rate.
Nkosinathi Jabulani Gumede from Usethubeni Correctional School became the first learner in the programme to achieve a national average of 85.5%, with his highest marks 95% in Business Studies and 94% in Life Orientation.
Tyrique Jooste, a parolee, was the second learner from the Baviaanspoort Youth School to achieve a national average of 84.4%, with his highest marks 90% in Afrikaans First Additional Language and 89% in Life Orientation.
KwaZulu-Natal was recognised for producing the highest number of matriculants, with 50 learners, of whom 45 achieved Bachelor passes. Usethubeni Correctional School alone accounted for 31 candidates, all of whom obtained Bachelor-level passes.
“None of this would be possible without the unwavering commitment of our educators, who continue to teach under uniquely challenging conditions with dedication and professionalism,” Groenewald said.
“We commend Heads of Correctional Centres and all officials whose daily support ensures that learners remain focused in an environment where distractions may emerge,” he said.
Groenewald stressed the importance of maintaining “a water-tight, credible, and ethical examination environment,” noting that correctional services schools have conducted NSC examinations without irregularities for many years.
“Our results are not a favour, but they are earned, and they are credible,” he said.
The minister raised concerns about the declining uptake of Mathematics in correctional schools, with more learners opting for Mathematical Literacy. He said Mathematics had not been a major challenge in previous years, and added that with proper support and the recruitment of capable teachers, learners would be able to succeed.
“South Africa is deliberately channelling learners towards gateway subjects because this is what our economy demands and the path a developing country like ours must pursue,” he said.
Groenewald also called for urgent intervention to address gender disparities in the education system, noting that girls outnumbered boys in the 2025 NSC cohort by 56% to 44%.
“Our inmate population is largely male, and many require educational redirection and support. As we often say, corrections is a societal responsibility, just as education is a societal responsibility,” he said.
