Drugs and violence put SA schools under siege

Violence, drugs and indiscipline are raising growing concerns about safety in South African schools, with police raids uncovering dangerous weapons and suspected illegal substances, while teacher unions warn that educators are increasingly facing threats and intimidation.

In Gauteng, ongoing school-safety operations involving the South African Police Service and other law-enforcement agencies have recovered knives, vapes, cigarettes, broken glass, scissors, grinders, matches and lighters, alongside suspected illegal substances including nyaope, spice and cannabis.

Recent searches have also uncovered multiple packets of cannabis in the possession of some learners, raising concerns about possible drug distribution inside schools.

Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile said the operations were part of efforts to strengthen school safety and discipline.

“Across the operations, law enforcement agencies recovered knives, vapes, cigarettes, broken mirrors and glass, scissors, grinders, matches, lighters and other dangerous or prohibited items,” Maile said.

“Drugs and substances recovered included nyaope, oil, spice, a space cookie and other suspected illegal substances. In some instances, learners were found with multiple packets of cannabis, raising concerns about the possible distribution of drugs within schools.”

But the danger inside schools is not only about what police are finding in school bags. For teachers, unions say, the growing problem is also about what educators are facing from learners, parents, and other members of the school community, and the impact that this is having on their safety, well-being and willingness to remain in the profession.

That concern was brought sharply into focus in the North West following a viral incident at Batlhaping Secondary School in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, where a learner was allegedly recorded insulting and verbally abusing a male teacher.

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in the North West said the incident was symptomatic of a broader problem of learner indiscipline and educator safety.

Sadtu said it was “deeply concerned” about the reported incident and the growing number of cases involving verbal abuse, threats, intimidation and physical attacks against educators.

The union said it could not accept a situation in which teachers reported for duty every day uncertain about whether they would be safe in their classrooms.

“An educator cannot be expected to perform their professional responsibilities effectively while being subjected to threats, insults, intimidation or violence,” Sadtu said.

“The safety and dignity of educators must be treated as a fundamental condition for quality education.”

Dems Nel, head of the Legal Department at the SAOU Teachers’ Union Legal Services, said the union had seen a “surge” in verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, and physical violence against educators.

“The tendency is coupled with inaction from the department, which tends to lead to a further increase in such incidents at schools. This is completely unacceptable, and it is not reasonable to expect educators to work in such hostile environments,” Nel said.

He said the problem was now being experienced nationally rather than being confined to particular provinces or schools.

“Educators face numerous threats, intimidation and physical bullying by students, their parents, the Department of Education and governing bodies. It is not limited to, or more rampant in, certain provinces or schools. In fact, it has become more prevalent in every single province in our country.” 

Nel said the union was increasingly receiving requests from educators seeking assistance on how to deal with threatening and intimidating conduct.

“It has reached a point where we are inundated by our members requesting assistance or guidance on how to deal with this conduct daily,” he said.

He said the consequences are beginning to extend beyond individual incidents and into the teaching profession itself.

“Definitely, we have dealt with numerous matters where educators have decided to leave the profession due to the intolerable working environment,” Nel said.

He further said many senior educators had recently opted for early retirement, although he acknowledged that this could not necessarily be attributed directly to violence.

“It has, in fact, reached a point where many educators find that it is not worth remaining in the profession, considering the risks involved,” he said.

He called for parents, communities, educators, law-enforcement agencies, and the government to work together to protect learners and ensure schools remain safe environments for teaching and learning.

Nel said existing disciplinary and school-safety mechanisms were not sufficiently effective and called for a comprehensive investigation into school safety and educators’ working conditions.

Possible interventions include more searches at schools, stronger security and access control, he said, while arguing that existing disciplinary measures must be implemented where serious misconduct occurs.

“Providing a safe workplace should not be conditional or optional,” Nel said.

The concern is reflected in national school-safety data. A Department of Basic Education school monitoring survey found that teachers reported lower levels of feeling safe at school than principals, highlighting the gap between how school safety is experienced by those managing schools and those working directly in classrooms.

Statistics South Africa has also highlighted the scale of violence affecting learners, with its 2026 reporting showing that about 14% of children surveyed reported physical violence from teachers and about 8% from other learners, underscoring that violence in schools affects multiple sides of the school environment.