EE mobilises unplaced pupils and families to march, saying DBE found only black and coloured learners stranded on waiting lists.
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Equal Education (EE) will march on Monday, demanding that the Western Cape education department place black and coloured pupils still without schools, saying the neglect mirrors the 1976 youth’s fight for education.
The youth-led mass democratic movement, including unplaced pupils and their parents, is expected to march to the offices of the Western Cape Premier and Western Cape Education MEC.
EE mobilises unplaced pupils and families to march
This comes after the department of basic education (DBE) recently found that only black and coloured pupils appeared on the collected waiting list of learners not admitted to Western Cape schools.
The department said these unplaced pupils were forced outside their areas despite available space, with no evidence of placement intervention.
Equal Education said on Friday that Monday’s march is to demand an end to the perpetual neglect of black pupils in the province.
“50 years after the 1976 youth uprising and well into democratic South Africa, school-going youth are still fighting a failing education department in a province where black learners from marginalised communities are treated as an afterthought,” EE said.
“These learners continue to struggle to be placed in schools.”
The movement said the struggles faced by black pupils today mirror the challenges and injustices that young people fought against in the 1976 Soweto uprising.
1976 Soweto uprising legacy
“Even worse, some black learners in the Western Cape have not seen the light of a classroom since the beginning of the 2026 school year,” Equal Education said.
The end of the second term is approaching, and EE said it continues to receive reports from affected parents noting that their children are sitting at home without school places.
On 2 June, EE appeared before the portfolio committee to present evidence regarding allegations of racial profiling and systemic exclusion in the Western Cape education system.
The movement highlighted policy provisions and administrative practices that continue to serve as barriers to access to education.
The Western Cape MEC for Education, David Maynier, pushed back on this claim, saying there was no racial profiling investigation, only monitoring, and DBE findings on unplaced pupils were untested, unverified, and unsupported.
Speaking to The Citizen, he called parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education’s meeting, where the matter was revealed, “a complete shambles”, saying it ignored other provinces and conflated court and monitoring matters.
EE accuses Western Cape of persistent pattern
Equal Education said the exclusion of pupils and the shortage of school places in the province have a clear racial and socio-economic character because most affected are black pupils, townships, poor families, and other marginalised groups.
“The Western Cape government’s approach to black learners is not incidental. It reflects a persistent pattern,” it said.
The movement added that it has extensively engaged with the Western Cape government over the years. EE sat in parliament, wrote letters, and attended several meetings without any remedy for its members, affected pupils, and parents.
“Accordingly, on the eve of Youth Day, EE learners and affected parents will march to the offices of the Western Cape Premier and the Education MEC to hand over memoranda of demands,” Equal Education said.
“This is not just a march. We stand on the shoulders of the brave young people of 1976 who fought for dignity, equality, and access to quality education.”
The marches demand, among other things, the following:
- The provision of additional pupil places in disadvantaged communities across the Western Cape;
- The WCED must place all the learners who are not placed before the third quarter of this year.
- A clear and proactive pupil placement plan with prioritised education resource provisioning for marginalised school communities;
- The WCED must develop clear catch-up plans for all the learners who are still not placed; and
- The investigative inquiry on causes of non-placement of pupils and a Western Cape-funded campaign to search for children who are out of school in the marginalised communities and reintegrating them into the schooling system.
