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Gauteng learners have missed out on 8,925 invaluable school days in 2026 due to electricity disconnections at public schools across the province. This exposes that the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) initially misled the public by denying that electricity cuts were taking place and impacting learning in the province. This also highlights the devastating consequences of the department's failure to oversee school finances.

This staggering figure is contained in a written reply by the Gauteng Department of Education MEC (GDE), Lebogang Maile, to questions tabled by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL). It confirms that electricity disconnections are not isolated incidents but a province-wide crisis affecting schools across multiple education districts.

The DA has submitted these latest legislative replies to the Public Protector as supplementary evidence in its ongoing complaint against the GDE over electricity disconnections at public schools. We believe they strengthen the case that the department failed to exercise effective oversight to prevent schools from reaching the point at which essential services were disconnected.

Each of the 8,925 school days lost due to electricity cuts represents a day when learners were denied access to quality education because lessons were disrupted; smartboards and computers could not be used; photocopiers and internet connectivity were affected; security systems were compromised and, in many cases, learners were forced to learn in unsafe and unsuitable conditions.

Even more concerning is that, while the department acknowledges widespread municipal debt and claims to provide oversight and intervention, it has now admitted in a separate reply that it does not maintain a central register of schools' outstanding debts to service providers, including amounts owed, the duration of those debts, or their causes.

How can the department intervene before schools lose essential services if it doesn’t know which are financially distressed? Surely, it cannot claim effective oversight while admitting it lacks the information needed to identify schools at risk of financial collapse.

The GDE must get its house in order, stop denying the failures in its oversight of school finances, and urgently implement lasting solutions. Learners should not have to suffer the consequences of the department’s never-ending failures and poor oversight.

A DA-led Gauteng Government would strengthen financial oversight, track school debts, identify struggling schools early and intervene before essential services are disconnected.

Issued by DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Education Michael Waters