News24 reports that a law firm acting on behalf of 11 schools has accused the head of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) education department, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, of being “vindictive” after he charged seven of the school principals with misconduct.

The seven were part of a group of principals from 22 schools that had previously secured a High Court order preventing Ngcobo’s department from implementing its 2025 teacher post establishment as it had only informed schools about it a week before the December holidays in 2024. As a result of the court order, these schools were allowed to retain the same number of teachers they had in 2024 going into 2025. In a separate matter, the department charged the seven with improper, disgraceful and unacceptable conduct on 22 October 2025 for “deliberately attempting to benefit from the state by falsifying or deliberately misrepresenting their pupil enrolment information”.

The charges stemmed from the findings of a task team commissioned by Ngcobo. The task team’s findings, contained in a document marked “draft report”, were that the principals of the schools falsified or deliberately misrepresented facts and “deliberately attempted to benefit from the state at the expense of poor or more deserving schools”. But, according to law firm Tatham Wilkes the report was “flawed” and the recommendations “ill-conceived and draconian”. The department has until 23 January 2026 to motivate why a high court order suspending the disciplinary proceedings against the principals should not be granted.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Prega Govender at News24 (subscription / trial registration required)

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