On Tuesday morning at the City Hall in Johannesburg, the DA Gauteng Spokesperson for education, Michael Walters (MPL), held a media briefing to formally submit 16,000 signed petitions by Gauteng residents with hopes to tackle the alleged Quintile Five budget cut made by the Gauteng Department of Education back in 2025.
The petition was launched in January after the DA visited several schools in Gauteng, only to discover that the budget reductions were already leaving schools in “devastating” conditions, alleging that schools in Gauteng are fighting to keep lights on, maintain basic infrastructure, pay municipal services, and repair toilets, to mention a few.
In their petition, they called on the department and the Gauteng governing body to immediately undo the 64% cut on Model C schools, to protect school funding from any further reductions, to prioritise frontline education spending over wasteful expenses, and to engage schools, parents, and communities regarding the financial strain facing the Q5 schools.
In a statement in January, the Gauteng Department of Education denied the claims made by the opposition party regarding the implementation of the 64% cut that was set to be effective from 1 April 2026. The statement explained that a temporary funding process was put into effect, necessitated by the “severe” budget reduction that was made by the National Treasury.
“At no point has the GDE implemented a 64% reduction in school funding. Accordingly, an interim funding realignment process was implemented, which was necessitated by severe budget reductions imposed by the National Treasury, which have affected all provinces across the country.”
Carrying the signed petitions at the briefing, the DA member of the provincial legislature and DA Gauteng spokesperson for education, Michael Walters, emphasised that children’s education is not negotiable and that the 16,000 signed petitions are an indication of anger from Gauteng residents felt across the province due to the budget reduction.
“We are handing in the biggest single petition to the Gauteng legislature ever, with over 16,000 signatures. And you can see the petition is here. It’s not blank pages, it’s signatures, it’s a proper petition. This gives an indication of the anger felt by residents of Gauteng against the budget cuts across the province for quintile 5 schools. Our children’s education is not negotiable. It is non-negotiable,” said Walters.
He further said that more ought to be invested in electricity supply in schools, improvement of the infrastructure, and doing away with the asbestos classes.
“For us, what ought to be happening is that money needs to be invested into schools to keep the lights on, to make sure infrastructure is properly maintained, to get rid of asbestos classrooms, and to make sure there’s enough teachers in order to give quality education to our learners.”
“We are calling on the portfolio committee of education here in Gauteng to apply their minds to the budget cuts and to reject the budget cuts when they deliberate on the budget in their portfolio committee on Friday, the 29th of this month. So that is our plea to the portfolio committee. And we believe that the provincial government cannot ignore the voices of 16,000 people. It speaks volumes.”