23 February 2026
Statement: Budget 2026—Stop sacrificing education at the altar of austerity
This Wednesday, 25 February 2026, Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana will deliver his Budget Speech in Parliament. In a more just world, such speech would breathe life into the promises made by the President in his State of the Nation Address – never contradict them. It should be a moment of renewal, where the State affirms its commitment to the rights and dignity of its people. Yet, year after year, the Budget has instead become a reminder of how far our Government falls short, particularly in basic social services like education.
Our government has a debt problem. It has borrowed from children and families for decades, and we are all paying the price.
Each year, the Treasury fails to provide anywhere near the amount of funding necessary to repair the structural inequality in education created by apartheid. In fact, most years have seen real-term decreases from already inadequate funding levels. As a result, provinces provide anaemic support to Districts, and schools are caught between choosing their duties or their balance sheets.
From the outset, let us be clear. While corruption and mismanagement play a role, even perfect spending would leave a vast gap. Further, the claim that South Africa spends more on education as a percentage of GDP than peer countries is misleading, as it ignores a large and growing school-going population that makes per-learner spending comparatively low.
While the State speaks about fiscal consolidation, the reality is that the costs of education are never saved. They are only transferred, to learners who face exclusion because they cannot meet an ever-expanding list of unlawful “compulsory donations” demanded by their cash-strapped, nominally no-fee schools. Poor learners have been turned away for reasons as absurd as not providing cleaning products or not paying ‘top-up fees’, all of which are unlawful attempts by schools to recover funding that the Government should have provided.
Each year, through our daily advice clinic at the Equal Education Law Centre, we are approached by hundreds of desperate parents and caregivers seeking assistance in challenging these practices. This budget, however, we call on the Minister of Finance to explain why the Treasury insists on pitting schools and communities against each other amidst dwindling funds.
Why should any child go hungry because she cannot pay a concocted “gas fee” to cook her daily meal – a right she is owed under the National School Nutrition Programme, which provides nutritious meals to learners from 60% of the poorest schools in South Africa?
Why should any learner be locked outside his school because he cannot pay his way in? Why should schools be placed in this untenable position of acting as debt collectors against poor families and shutting their doors?
Annually congratulating our matric class for their resilience, without addressing their funding crisis, is an insult – not only to them but also to the 40% of learners who never reach Grade 12, too often as a result of poverty and an education system shrinking because of austerity.
If Minister Godongwana is serious about reflecting the President’s emphasis on education, he will commit to:
- sustained real-term increases in education funding;
- the ring-fencing of child budgeting, even in austerity, and;
- the funding of Grade R—a legal duty the government has ignored since January 2025.
The right to basic education has been sacrificed at the altar of austerity for too long. Our children are entitled to so much more.
This year, the State has the chance to start repaying its debt. We are watching.
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To arrange media interview, contact:
Papama Mabotshwa | Media and Communications Intern | papama@eelawcentre.org or 062 520 1818
