Parents in Cape Town’s townships are increasingly turning to former white-only schools, seeking a safer and more stable educational environment for their children. This trend illustrates systemic inequities that still exist in the education system over 30 years after the end of apartheid. The Mbasana family, who live in Khayelitsha, represent the plight of millions of families working to address safety concerns, find a high-quality education, and overcome economic hurdles.
Sibahle Mbasana and her husband Sipho Mbasana recently enrolled their daughter, Lifalethu, in a school in Simon’s Town, a historically white area. Their decision came in the wake of Lifalethu’s ascent to national headlines. She would often have to walk over 30 kilometers back from school to Khayelitsha. The tragedy highlighted the perils that young kids encounter on their own streets, where gang culture too frequently rules.
Bantu Education Act of 1953 an attempt to severely limit education for black South Africans. Today, one of its legacies continues its reign of terror throughout South African schools. Because of the underfunding and lack of adequate resources for many township schools, there are extreme gaps in academic achievement. According to reports, children in the top 200 schools achieve more distinctions in mathematics than students in the remaining 6,600 schools combined.
The province of the Western Cape has shed one out of every five teaching positions. A large 2,407 posts were removed due to federal spending cuts. So far, the feds have funded just 64% of the costs associated with the nationally negotiated wage agreement of teachers. This creates a huge hole that must be filled. This staffing shortfall has led to larger class sizes and more stress on teachers.
Top Education Advocate Basil Manuel lamented the effect of these cuts on providing for township schools. The schools that are experiencing the tangible effect of this is your average, typical township school. That’s what they can’t afford to do—replace those teachers with governing-body appointees,” he added. He pointed out that more well-resourced schools are able to backfill staffing with tuition paid by parents.
When parents such as Mrs. Mbasana confront the stark realities of education in townships, they choose safety over convenience. “I told myself [that] Buhle was not going to that [local] school because I already endured so many things with the two boys when they were at that school,” she said. The Mbasana family faces long mornings: their children wake up at 4:30 am and leave for school at 5:50 am. Yet they endure the long commute, knowing it’s the price they must pay to put their kids in a better, more secure school setting.
Even with all the obstacles, Sibahle Mbasana told us she would love for her family to leave Khayelitsha. “We don’t want to live in the township, but we have to live here because we can’t afford to move out,” she said. The family’s economic situation reflects a common struggle among many township residents who are often caught between safety concerns and financial limitations.
In Khayelitsha, the largest and fastest-growing township in Cape Town, gangs control entire neighborhoods. As a consequence, parents are left feeling exposed and helpless. Teachers have reported feeling unsafe at schools, with some stating that “these gangs come to the school gun-wielding.” Even rumors of these kinds of threats have forced educators to ask for transfers away from these high-risk areas.
Donovan Williams, then-vice-principal of a provincial medium school in Observatory, raised the alarm over the crisis at district schools. “Eighty-five percent of my school’s intake comes from townships,” he noted, highlighting how urban pressures impact educational access and quality.
In his attempt to understand Fataar, Pakistan-born education analyst Aslam Fataar highlighted systemic failures that still exist today in South Africa’s education system. “The ANC had to confront the fact that it couldn’t deliver in the way it said it would,” he remarked. He noted that disadvantaged schools were put at a disadvantage from the get-go. They were never allowed to build a new, sustainable base for teaching and learning.
In addition, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has announced a drop in teaching posts. The upshot is that due to a very tight funding squeeze, contract teachers are not being reappointed. Despite the province’s claim of universal access, parents in the province pay school fees between $60 and $4,500 per year. More than 100 schools so categorized no-fee establishments protect pupils for the financially ravaged environment. For far too many families, even the bare-bones expense of educating a child is beyond their means.
As families like the Mbasanas continue to seek better educational opportunities for their children outside of their local communities, the larger question remains how can South Africa bridge the significant gaps in education and safety that still exist more than thirty years after apartheid?
