‘I don’t know what Dudula is saying’: Gauteng MEC says 97% of learners placed are South African

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane says more than 97 percent of learners placed in public schools across the province are South African nationals.

Chiloane was responding to an ongoing campaign by the anti-immigrant group Operation Dudula, which has been mobilising parents in parts of Gauteng and demanding that South African learners be prioritised over foreign nationals in school placements.

The group has alleged that foreign children are being prioritised for placements, leaving many South African learners without school places for the 2026 academic year.

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Chiloane said the claims made by Dudula activists were not supported by facts and were contradicted by departmental data.

“We are guided by the law. We have a duty to place learners or children of school-going age. What I need to assure parents is that there is no such thing as the department prioritising undocumented learners. Actually, if you look at it, when we are doing registration and placements, the learner who gets placed most of the time is a child with documents, because that is easy for the school to process.

“Undocumented learners come later because there are no documents. We cannot start with someone without documents and leave someone with documents. That is one of the logical explanations.

“With this online system now, only less than three percent of the children that are placed on the system are undocumented or learners of foreign origin. Less than three percent. Over 97 percent of the children that we placed through this online system in this academic year are full-on South African kids. I don’t know what Dudula is saying but there are facts that are there,” he said.

The MEC said his office remained open to engaging with Operation Dudula, but warned that misinformation was fuelling unnecessary tensions around an already pressured school placement system.

Chiloane said his door had always been open for engagement with Dudula activists to hear their concerns and find solutions.

“There is no way, it would be going against my oath to deny a South African child access to education. Then I should not be an MPL (Member of Provincial Legislature) let alone be an MEC. That is an obligation as a public representative. There, I do not know where they get it, but from where I am sitting, those are the numbers we are dealing with,” he said.

He also dismissed claims that foreign learners were being enrolled using affidavits instead of official documentation.

“It’s not true. I am surprised that they are saying that. It’s not true. Maybe they don’t have children in school those people. If you have a child in school, you should know the process. There is no way. You cannot just come with an affidavit, and we will take your child. The requirements of documents are clear, we need the (birth) certificate of the child, we need proof of home address, we need the ID, and all those things,” he said.

“That also goes for children of asylum or parents of foreign origin. It’s the same story. We want full-on documents. There is no way that these ones being affidavits. Actually, we reject affidavits, we do not accept an affidavit, we do not accept a letter from the council. We are very specific, we do not want those letters.”

The debate comes amid mounting pressure on Gauteng’s public school system, which continues to face capacity challenges driven by population growth, migration into the province and infrastructure backlogs.

Education authorities have repeatedly stated that citizenship or immigration status is not a lawful criterion for denying a child access to basic education, which is guaranteed under the Constitution.

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

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