POLOKWANE: School principals are getting into personal debt to keep schools functioning while provincial education departments delay releasing funds for basic operating costs.
School leaders have described using their own personal credit cards or savings for stationery and supplies due to funding delays.
The issue was raised in a plenary and in a follow-up interview during the South African Principals Association (SAPA) national conference in Limpopo, attended by over 850 principals,
Requesting anonymity, three principals — from two Limpopo primary schools and a Gauteng high school – said their personal debt had exceeded R10,000.
Provincial education departments must make the first payment by 15 May and the second by 15 November, but recurring delays have been reported.
“These are statutory payments, not pocket money,” Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas) CEO Dr Jaco Deacon pointed out earlier.
Allocated via the National Norms and Standards of School Funding (NNSSF) based on school quintiles and learner counts, the allocations cover operating expenses like stationery, learning materials, utilities and exams.
Delegates register ahead of the opening of the conference of principals in Limpopo on 4 September 2026. Photo: Abelife Photography/SAPA
SAPA president Mashudu Ramulumo said delayed funding was forcing principals into an untenable position, with the failure to find alternative money threatening to bring essential operations to a standstill.
Principals felt responsible for preventing examinations from being disrupted or postponed, he said in an interview. “When the schools reopen, principals have to purchase stationery for educators. The first term or first and second quarter examinations need lots of money, and even when the funding is not available, principals have to find other ways to pay for school needs.
“When there is no stationery and there is no money, a principal is forced to … make a plan. You can’t just sit down and say no, they can’t write exams. So it’s either you take your own credit card, go and buy, because you know you will be reimbursed.”
Some principals opted to ask stationery suppliers for goods on credit. “You can go to a stationery shop and ask, can you write it down; we will pay you when we get money.
“Some of the suppliers have approached us as SAPA to assist them in ensuring the principals pay up, and we mediate to ensure that they understand that there is a delay, not that they are refusing to pay,” he said.
SAPA had repeatedly raised the issue with education authorities. “We have made that call, submissions, several times because every quarter we meet with the department. We send them the topics that we want to be addressed, in fact, and also the recommendations,” he said.
SAPA is working to address the mental pressures driving principals to administrative burnout – with up to 60% at breaking point, according to the most recent survey “Burnout cannot be addressed while principals are expected to carry these financial burdens without the resources they need to run their schools,” he said.
A Limpopo primary deputy principal said school heads could spend months carrying expenses themselves. “We have waited for more than three months without being reimbursed and when we repay the credit cards, we have accumulated the interest, which becomes difficult to pay off. We cannot afford not to have a credit card because when things run out, we need to provide the solution,” the deputy principal said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
Some of the suppliers have approached us to assist them in ensuring the principals pay up, and we mediate to ensure that they understand that there is a delay, not that they are refusing to pay
A Tshwane primary school principal said the financial strain had affected his personal finances and credit record. The principal said they hoped both payments would come through by November.
In Gauteng, the delay is caused by cash-flow problems. Finance MEC Nkululeko Dunga confirmed in a written response that the Provincial Treasury had advised the Gauteng Department of Education to delay Norms and Standards payments because of cash-flow constraints. The department had warned about projected transfers to schools in letters dated 11 February and 13 June 2026, but schools still did not receive their full first-tranche allocations. The latest reporting puts Gauteng’s overall shortfall at R1.87 billion.
In her opening speech, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said: “Provinces are under significant financial pressure, but the delays in the payment of Norms and Standards to schools cannot continue. Children cannot be the shock absorbers for provincial financial pressures.”
She called on principals to stop using their credit cards and rather request funds from head office. “If there will be a shortage of printing paper, it must be at the [provincial] head office first before it ever comes to the school. If there are cash flow problems, they must be absorbed by the head office and not by the school,” Gwarube said.
She had reminded all Education MECs that it was unacceptable to be late with payments.
In a statement in May, Fedsas said that only schools in the Western Cape and Northern Cape had received their full allocations; other provinces had either not paid anything, or only partial payments.
Ramulumo said the allocation crisis is yet to be resolved, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal still waiting for full allocations.
The State’s total NNSSF obligation for 2026 is more than R21 billion. “For education managers, these are abstract numbers with lots of zeros. For school managers, it is a reality of about R9 per learner per school day in no-fee schools, assuming of course that they receive the money,” said Deacon in the earlier statement.
The NNSSF system was introduced to reduce educational inequality by providing a uniform funding system that designates schools in poor communities as no-fee schools.
- This EdDesk story was also published by Times LIVE
