KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli has raised concerns about significant budget cuts impacting the province's education and health departments, warning that these reductions are putting critical services under severe strain.
Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Ntuli detailed the financial challenges facing the province, pointing to billions of rand in cuts that have affected staff, operations and service delivery.
Ntuli outlined the significant reductions in funding for education over the 2024/25 period, reporting that budget cuts of R5.767 billion, R6.047 billion and R6.363 billion across the next three years equate to a 9.2 percent decrease.
He described the situation as “critical underfunding”, which he said had already weakened the department’s core mission of delivering quality education and developing educators.
The cuts have frozen staff recruitment and forced schools to operate with fewer teachers. Ntuli said the current staffing structure, which had not changed since 2008, is “outdated” as it does not reflect growing student enrolment or evolving curriculum needs.
He noted that the situation had left many schools short-staffed, increasing pressure on existing educators to manage larger classes and additional responsibilities.
Thirona Moodley, KZN chief executive of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), described the budget cuts as a “crisis in education”, explaining that many schools are struggling to keep essential operations running.
“Schools were not paid their full allocations, hence making it impossible to manage the school. Schools are running on empty with no money to run internal exams, pay service providers and cover municipal bills,” Moodley said.
She added that this has made planning for the 2025 academic year nearly impossible. “For schooling to start on day one of 2025 is impossible because there are no funds for learning resources,” she warned.
Moodley also expressed concern about the burden placed on teachers, who are now being tasked with inspecting school vendors.
“The department now expects teachers to also oversee the vendors.
Teachers are not health inspectors and are not trained to carry out such inspections,” she said, noting that this new responsibility is risky as vendors “could retaliate”.
Naptosa has called for a bailout from the National Treasury to address the funding shortfall and urged the Department of Education to end wasteful expenditure and commit to a sustainable budget plan.
Adding to these concerns, Nomarashiya Caluza, KZN spokesperson of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), described the budget cuts as a “no...no.”
She said the financial shortfall has had a wide-reaching impact on staff and school resources.
“Schools have not been getting their monies from the department, which claims that it doesn’t have enough because of budget cuts,” Caluza said.
Sadtu members have reported that pay progressions and necessary stipend increases have been delayed or cancelled, impacting morale across the education workforce.
“Teachers and all workers in the department have not been paid their pay progression,” she said, adding that essential allowances for office-based employees are also not being honoured despite existing policies.
Caluza explained that, due to outstanding debts, some service providers have stopped working with schools altogether, while municipalities have begun cutting electricity at certain schools and department offices.
She said that these actions disrupt learning and place additional stress on already overwhelmed staff.
Premier Ntuli echoed these concerns, reporting that the education department began the financial year with R1.39 billion in unpaid invoices and an additional R989.1 million in accrued debts.
He noted that the department’s operational budget, excluding grant funding, stands at R6.49 billion, of which about R3 billion is allocated to school funding norms that cannot be adjusted.
This leaves just R3.49 billion for other expenses, including wage agreements, which, Ntuli warned, could lead to “dire consequences” if more teaching posts are cut to make up the difference.
He also touched on the health department’s budgetary challenges, projecting R4.70 billion overspending due to high staffing costs and outstanding wage agreements.
Ntuli said that in both education and health, limited funds have made it impossible to hire necessary staff like teachers, doctors, nurses and social workers.
Ntuli said that intervention from the national government was essential to address KZN’s mounting financial crisis.