As the 2026 academic year prepares to open its gates, educators in Ekurhuleni are reporting for duty under a death sentence. Who will protect them?

On 14 January 2026, the school bells will ring across Gauteng. Desks will be dusted, textbooks issued, and lessons planned. But in the City of Ekurhuleni, a horrific silence will haunt the corridors of many schools. Seats in staff rooms will remain empty—not due to illness or resignation, but because their occupants have been shot, injured, or murdered. Their crime? Daring to lead a school with integrity.

This is not a crime wave; it is a targeted purge.

School Principals, Deputy Principals, and Heads of Department—the very backbone of our education system—are being hunted. The timeline reads like a war report:

• 2023: Unity Secondary School, Daveyton. A Departmental Head, shot and killed.
• 2024: Rivoni Secondary School, Daveyton. A Deputy Principal, shot and killed.
• 2025: Vezukhono Secondary School, Etwatwa. A Principal, shot and injured.
• 2025: Inxiweni Primary School, Tembisa. An educator, shot and killed.
• 2025: Dinoto Technical Secondary School, Daveyton. A Deputy Principal, shot and injured on school grounds.

Daveyton. Tembisa. These names are now synonyms for mortal risk in the teaching profession. The message is grisly and clear: Stand in the way of corruption, and you may be permanently removed.

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The poison is in the process. These leaders are responsible, in part or in full, for procurement, budgets, and appointments—areas rife with lucrative abuse. When a principled member of the School Management Team refuses to participate in a fraudulent tender for textbooks (Learning and Teaching Support Material), construction (Maintenance and Repairs), or rejects the hiring of an unqualified, connected individual, they aren’t just causing a dispute. They are threatening and provoking a criminal enterprise. And in Ekurhuleni, the enterprise fights back with bullets.

The result? A terrifying civil war within our schools. On one side, educators fighting for learners’ futures. On the other, cartels in blazers, seeing schools as personal “kitties” for plunder, willing to commission hits on their own colleagues.

And what is the official response?

• Gauteng Department of Education: It has cancelled school security contracts, leaving these battlegrounds unprotected. Schools have become hunting grounds, where assassins walk in to “take out” a problem at the gate.
• District Officials: A failure to root out complicit officials—from IDSOs to Circuit Managers and District Directors—has allowed these syndicates to fester. Their inaction is complicity.
• The MEC for Education: Empty “statements of concern.” No tangible plan. No visible crackdown. Just words, as body counts rise.

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Is it any surprise that these districts, drowning in blood and corruption, are also consistently among Gauteng’s worst academic performers? The connection is undeniable: Fear cannot foster learning. A school governed by the gun fails the child.

As we stand on the precipice of the 2026 school year, we must ask a harrowing question: What parent would send their child into a building where the principal might be executed? What educator would accept a promotion that could be a death warrant?

We are not just losing teachers. We are losing guardians, moral compasses, and community heroes. We are sacrificing the future of thousands of children on the altar of corruption.

Our demand is simple, urgent, and non-negotiable:

1. Arrest the Hitmen AND Their Masters. We need public, high-profile arrests and prosecutions of both the trigger-pullers and the shadowy figures in suits who hire them.
2. Restore Immediate, Effective Security. Every school must be a sanctuary. The Department’s reckless security vacuum must be filled—now.
3. Purge the System. A dedicated, independent task force must investigate and root out the “school cartels” and their protectors within district offices.

To the leaders, teachers, and School Governing Body members of Ekurhuleni: we see your courage. Your community sees it. And we must all become your protectors.

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Let 2026 be the year we reclaim our schools from the assassins. Let it be the year we choose books over bullets, and our children’s future over fear. For the sake of every learner waiting for their chance, we must win this fight.

The future of Ekurhuleni depends on it.