Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube. Picture: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube spent her first full year in office doing what few ministers before her dared: pushing reforms at full speed, confronting uncomfortable truths. Yet even with this burst of energy, South Africa’s education system limped through 2025 battered, confused, and angrier than ever.
Much of that anger was directed straight at her office. The department’s move to enforce regulations that protect the admission of undocumented and foreign pupils sharply divided South Africans and sparked fierce debate. The DBE insisted that schools may not deny access to “undocumented pupils or pregnant pupils,” and may accept an affidavit while documents are processed.
Legally correct? Politically explosive? Absolutely.
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Parents who waited months for placements asked a reasonable question: How is it that South African children must wait while foreign children with no documents walk straight into a classroom? That frustration was captured sharply in a recentCitizen opinion columnthat warned the minister’s approach risks “placing foreign children ahead of South African ones.” Instead of calming the ground, Gwarube doubled down, publicly declaring that “the laws of the country are technically crafted by you, for you… participate in the lawmaking process.” Technically true, yes, but it sounded like a lecture to parents whose children still sit in overcrowded classrooms, or no classroom at all. It is difficult to preach constitutionalism to a mother whose Grade 1 child remains unplaced while schools are filled beyond capacity.
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