South African citizens have no right to pressure school principals to break the law by rejecting children of foreign nationals, irrespective of their legal status, from enrolling in schools, said civil rights and education experts.   

The experts, including Professor Mary Metcalfe, weigh in on the chaos at the Addington Primary School in Durban, where organisations such as March and March Movement (MAM) and Operation Dudula joined forces with local citizens to prioritise admitting local children over the children of foreign nationals.

According to Metcalfe, the Department of Basic Education (DBC) operates under the 2021 and 2025 regulations of school admission policy, which state that: “The right to education extends to everyone within the boundaries of South Africa, the nationality and immigration status is immaterial”.

“Principals cannot be put under pressure by parents to defy departmental instructions,” said Metcalfe. 

She reminded citizens who are opposed to the admission policies to contest them in the appropriate forum and manner. 

She said the schools cannot prioritise children based on their nationalities as the law is against discrimination.

“The obligatory legal framework that guides principals and department officials is that all public schools are required to admit all learners and serve their education requirements,” said Metcalfe.  

The two-week-long protests at the schools have highlighted a squabble between locals and foreign nationals over state resources. 

Metcalfe said that the government was facing challenges when it came to school capacity.

“But education departments have the responsibility to manage this fairly and transparently and to provide leadership where pressure on places leads to social conflict.

“This places an obligation on all provincial education departments to ensure that there are sufficient places in all public schools to accommodate all learners of compulsory school age.

“The principle and practice of admission of all learners to public schools regardless of their nationality and immigration status is well established and is a legal requirement of all public schools,” she said. 

The protest outside the school, which is situated near Point in the city, which is predominantly occupied by foreign nationals, erupted into a violent confrontation between locals and foreigners this week. 

It was reported that violence started when local parents, who alleged that their children were being sidelined by the school, attempted to conduct a headcount of foreign pupils enrolled. 

The eThekwini Metro Police and South African Police Service officers intervened to quell the confrontation. 

Systems-oriented social justice activist Tracey Malawana blamed the government’s failure to provide enough schools that deliver quality education for everyone.

She said every year, many parents struggle to find schools for their children because of the government’s failure to provide sufficient classrooms. 

Malawana also cautioned the local citizens that Section 29 of the South African Schools Act guarantees the right to basic education to everyone within the country, irrespective of nationality or documentation status.

“Children of foreign nationals, whether documented or undocumented, cannot lawfully be excluded from public schools. 

“Schools are not immigration enforcement sites, and denying a child access to education because of their nationality or lack of papers would amount to unfair discrimination and a violation of their rights. 

“At the same time, it is important to be equally clear that the law does not permit schools to prioritise foreign learners over South African learners,” said Malawana. 

Parents Association of KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Vee Gani also criticised the protestors, whom he accused of displaying xenophobic tendencies. 

“It is xenophobia because if you are saying the foreign nationals, whether they are legal or illegal, cannot get a preference here, and we as South Africans should get preference, that would be xenophobia,” he said. 

He said the confrontation was traumatic to children who witnessed it.

He said there was no evidence that the school had prioritised children of foreign nationals, as this could only be verified by the Department.

“From the report that I have seen, the department confirms that it is not the case and that there are more South African children in the school,” he said.

Gani said some parents had missed the deadline for applying for their children’s admission, which was last year. 

“If the school already has its number, what is the school going to do? 

“The admission opened between the start of April and September, which was quite a few months.

“If you went on time to apply to the school and the school shut you down, then the school would be wrong, but you are only now trying to put your children in the school when the school already got all the numbers. Where is the school going to accommodate your children?” said Gani.

However, MAM leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma rejected the concern that the protest traumatised the school children, saying the trauma was felt by South African children who are denied access to the school. 

She said the department had refused to engage with MAM, but instead spoke to the concerned parents. 

“Parents report to us, but it’s fine if they don’t talk to us. As long as they are going to solve the problem, is all that matters,”  said Ngobese-Zuma. 

He said if the Department is obliged to place all children in schools, then the Department should build more schools.

“If they have not built more schools, they must prioritise South African children first,” she said. 

bongani.hans@inl.co.za

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