classroom fear: Gauteng’s school safety crisis triggers raids, CCTV, and private security at high-risk institutions

Badirile Secondary School in Khutsong, Carletonville, has become a grim symbol of Gauteng’s school safety crisis. During a South African Police Service-led (SAPS) search-and-seizure operation, authorities found knives, a panga, drugs, vapes and other prohibited items on the premises.

“This is one of the schools that is very notorious. There are learners here who threaten teachers, saying they will call zama zamas and criminals to murder educators. The school has become synonymous with violence, gangsterism, poor discipline and absenteeism,” said Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile. 

Badirile is not an isolated case, but part of a broader Gauteng school safety crisis marked by violence, gangsterism and bullying. In a press conference in June, Maile said school safety was among the pressing challenges facing the province’s education system and warned that learners could not learn effectively in environments marked by fear, intimidation or violence. 

Over five years, Gauteng schools recorded more than 4,600 violent incidents and over 4,100 vandalism cases, alongside nearly 400 sexual-misconduct incidents. Maile added that safety concerns were being raised repeatedly by parents, educators and school governing bodies regarding bullying, learner-on-learner violence, substance abuse, vandalism and crime around schools. 

“These concerns are consistent with the findings of the department’s environmental scan on crime and violence in schools, which identified gang-related violence, bullying, substance abuse, theft, vandalism, sexual harassment and criminal activity around schools as some of the key safety challenges affecting schools across the province,” said Maile.

A comprehensive environmental analysis of crime and violence in schools conducted by the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance profiled more than 1,300 schools across the province and identified 245 schools as high-risk schools requiring targeted interventions and support. 

Raids, weapons and frontline fear in the classroom

In response, the department has rolled out a package of interventions aimed at making schools safer and easier to protect. 

One of those is partnering with the SAPS and other law enforcement agencies to conduct unannounced search-and-seizure raids at high-risk schools across the province. The operation aims to identify and remove prohibited items, preventing crime and violence, and creating safer, more supportive schools. Since launching in early August 2026, the Gauteng Department of Education and SAPS have searched at least 23 high-risk schools, seizing a massive amount of dangerous weapons like knives and pangas, alongside cannabis, disposable vapes and cigarettes.

For frontline educators, police intervention is necessary, but sporadic sweeps barely scratch the surface. Speaking to Daily Maverick, an Ennerdale teacher who requested anonymity acknowledged that law enforcement must step in because teachers cannot manage criminal behaviour using basic school disciplinary codes.

“A one-day visit won’t solve this; the department has been doing this for years, and nothing has changed. It does not stop the ill-disciplined learners,” she said. The teacher detailed an incident in which she attempted to discipline a male learner who informed her that he knew her home address and would send friends to deal with her. 

“When I try to discipline the learners in my class, they become very belligerent. The fact that these children can become physically violent, I am constantly afraid in my class, and there is only so much that a teacher can do,” she said.

Private guards, cameras and psychosocial support

In an effort to bolster on-site protection, the department initially deployed private security services to 75 schools, later expanding this to 121 high-risk institutions that required additional support. In total, the department reports that 422 schools across the province now benefit from private security support.

Alongside physical security personnel, the Gauteng Department of Education invested in technology-enabled measures by installing CCTV systems at 606 schools across Gauteng. This surveillance network includes specialised monitoring technologies implemented through partnerships such as the Vodacom School Safety Project.

However, Maile stressed that technology and guards alone could not solve the crisis, as these must be paired with active community ownership and parental involvement. 

To achieve long-term safety, the Gauteng Department of Education was focusing on the social drivers of school violence, substance abuse, and bullying by expanding psychosocial support services. Through partnerships with organisations like the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag), the Teddy Bear Foundation, Childline, and the Isibindi Ezikoleni Programme the department provides mental health awareness, trauma counselling and child protection interventions across hundreds of schools to support vulnerable learners and improve emotional wellbeing.

Looking ahead, the department is conducting a comprehensive review of its provincial School Safety Strategy, which is set for finalisation later this year. The updated framework aims to shift Gauteng away from reactive crisis management toward a preventive model built on early risk detection and sustained psychosocial support.

Daily Maverick sent questions to the Gauteng Department of Education on its school safety strategy, but the department had not responded by the time of publication.

Policing the symptoms of a much deeper social crisis

Philangenkosi Shabangu, a lecturer at the University of the Free State’s Department of Curriculum Studies and Higher Education, stated that school violence was not merely a failure of learner discipline. Instead, he framed it as “structural violence”, which was a direct symptom of the poverty, unemployment, and inequality that followed learners into the classroom every day.

While acknowledging that police sweeps, CCTV networks, and private guards restored immediate order, Shabangu cautioned that this risked treating symptoms while leaving the root causes untouched.

“Until structural injustices are addressed with the same urgency as security deployments, school violence will remain a recurring symptom of deeper social failures. Creating safer schools demands more than surveillance and policing,” Shabangu warned. DM