The Gauteng Department of Education has warned parents not to pay anyone claiming to secure school placements after receiving more than 805,688 applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 for the 2027 academic year. The warning was issued on 6 September 2026, two days after the province’s online admissions window closed following a month-long application period that opened on 5 August.
“Those who pay these fraudsters are paying for nothing, as all placements are managed strictly through the official GDE Online Admissions System,” the department said in a statement published by SA News on 6 September. The department specifically denied that anyone named “Godfrey” was employed in its Tshwane office or any district office responsible for learner placements.
Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile drew a hard line weeks before the admissions window opened. “If there’s any one of our employees who’s found to have taken a bribe claiming they can secure a school place, we will dismiss them and open criminal charges against them,” Maile told IOL’s Saturday Star on 28 July 2026.
The scale of demand — more than 805,688 applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 combined — reflects intense pressure on school capacity in Gauteng, according to TimesLive reporting on 6 September. Placement offers are scheduled to begin on 15 October 2026 via SMS and the admissions system, continuing until all learners are placed.
Placements will be determined by priority criteria: feeder-zone home address first, then sibling attendance, work address in the feeder zone, home address within 30km, and finally beyond 30km. “The Online Admissions System deals with an ID number — it does not know colour, creed or nationality,” GDE Chief Director for Admissions Mmule Madonsela told IOL’s Saturday Star on 28 July.
Maile also flagged uneven distribution of applications across schools as a structural problem. “We cannot sustain a situation where one public school is overwhelmed by thousands of applications while another public school, sometimes only a few kilometres away, has available classrooms or declining enrolment,” he said, according to TimesLive on 6 September.
The Gauteng warning highlights a broader national pattern in which high demand for school places creates openings for fraudsters targeting desperate parents. No comparable advisory has been issued by the Western Cape Education Department for the current admissions cycle, and Cape Flats News has no reporter on the ground in Gauteng — this report is based on official department statements and reporting by SA News, TimesLive, and IOL.
No arrests or dismissals have been confirmed in connection with the placement fraud warning, and the identity of any alleged syndicate members beyond the department’s reference to “Godfrey” remains unverified. Cape Flats News will monitor for further developments from the Gauteng department and check whether the Western Cape Education Department issues a similar advisory for Cape Town parents.
Reporting by Naledi Sithole, Cape Flats News