Minister's do-and-dare approach still failed the pupils

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.

- Oratile Mashilo

Yet even with this burst of energy, South Africa's education system limped through 2025 battered, confused and angrier.

Much of that anger was directed 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 department of basic education insisted that schools may not deny access to undocumented or pregnant pupils, and may accept an affidavit while documents are processed.

Legally correct? Yes. Politically explosive? Absolutely. 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 recent