The start of the 2026 academic year, scheduled for January 14, is facing a significant crisis in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Northern Cape, with widespread failures in resource delivery, raising serious concerns about provincial readiness.
Teacher unions and school governing bodies are sounding the alarm over missing stationery, textbooks, budget cuts, and infrastructure damage in these regions.
The National Teachers Union (NATU) President, Sibusiso Malinga, expressed strong apprehension about the situation in KZN.
“In KwaZulu-Natal, the province is grappling with significant challenges, as most schools across its 12 districts have not received stationery or textbooks for the current academic year,” Malinga stated.
He described the delivery breakdown as inconsistent, noting that some districts have “received nothing at all, while others have only covered a handful of schools”.
The problem is most acute for Section 21 schools with Function C, where the procurement process appears to have been stalled, he said.
Malinga pointed to a recurring failure from the previous year, explaining that the KZN Department of Education (DoE) failed to promptly transfer allocations after principals signed agreements with service providers.
This history has led to current hesitancy, and according to Malinga, service providers are now reluctant to deliver “without clear communication and assurances of timely payment from the KZN DoE”.
Adding to the woes, NATU also drew attention to unrepaired infrastructure damage at several KZN schools caused by recent storms and floods.
“NATU finds it misleading to claim that KZN is ready for the 2026 academic year and urges immediate intervention to resolve these systemic failures,” Malinga concluded.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) Provincial Secretary in KZN, Nomarashiya Caluza, corroborated the resource crisis, reporting that the union has been “inundated with panic calls from some school principals”.
“Unfortunately, principals, as they report to their union, indicate that they have not received the necessary requirements like stationery, textbooks, as well as all other things like cleaning materials to ensure that schools are thoroughly cleaned to welcome learners and teachers back,” she said.
To gather tangible data, SADTU KZN conducted a rapid school readiness survey.
The findings are stark: out of 247 principals who participated, 54% reported that their schools were not ready for re-opening, with high levels of unreadiness found in the Umkhanyakude (69.6%), Ugu (69.4%), and Ilembe (68.6%) districts.
“Through the findings of the survey, failure to pay the basic financial allocations is the reason schools are not ready for re-opening,” Caluza revealed.
For example, 72.4% of schools reported not receiving their Norms and Standards allocation.
Furthermore, 56.7% of schools lack Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM) as they await delivery from central procurement.
Caluza attributed the “mess” to an external decision: the Provincial Treasury’s imposition of PFMA Section 18, which requires KZN DoE procurement to be approved by the Department of Finance.
This intervention, which prevented the placing of orders that normally happen in May, delayed the green light for stationery procurement until October 2025 and excluded textbooks entirely.
“It is unfortunate that the failure of the department on its own constitutional obligation has become a common occurrence,” she stressed.
SADTU has requested an urgent meeting with the department to discuss these challenges.
Meanwhile, the Northern Cape is grappling with a different kind of financial strain: severe budget cuts.
While stationery deliveries were initiated late last year, NATU reports that allocations have been “slashed by 60%”, forcing institutions to request financial contributions from parents to cover the shortfalls.
“NATU condemns this approach, as it places an unfair burden on low-income families who largely rely on government grants,” Malinga stressed.
To compound the crisis, schools have been “explicitly instructed not to use these reduced allocations for textbooks, exacerbating the resource crisis”.
Malinga demanded urgent action: “We demand that the provincial department reverse these cuts and provide adequate support to prevent further inequality in education.”
Despite the challenges in KZN and the Northern Cape, NATU intelligence suggests the remaining seven provinces are not reporting similar significant issues.
The National Association of School Governing Bodies (NaASGB) believes all schools will open as mandated, but General Secretary Matakanye Matakanya highlighted overcrowding as the primary obstacle, urging greater funding for class expansion and the provision of qualified Grade R teachers.
For KZN and the Northern Cape, however, the immediate focus remains on securing the basic resources needed to conduct the first lesson on January 14, preventing the new academic year from starting on a note of systemic failure.
The National Department of Basic Education was asked for comment on the matter of school readiness; however, no response was received at the time of publication.
