Are South African teaching posts up for sale? School staff say an old problem hasn’t gone away

South Africa has clear rules for appointing and promoting teachers.

RDNE, Pexels , CC BY Questions about the integrity of educator appointments remain unresolved in South Africa ten years after a ministerial task team investigated the alleged sale of teaching posts.

The inquiry exposed vulnerabilities in a system intended to ensure that appointments are fair, equitable and transparent.

A decade later, how well does South Africa’s system protect teacher appointments and promotions from improper influence? The question remains relevant because allegations of post-selling, nepotism (giving jobs to friends and family members) and unfair promotion processes continue to be investigated and reported .

My research focuses on education policy, school governance, management, leadership and teacher education.

In a 2025 study , my colleagues and I examined what regulates and influences educator appointments and promotions in South African public schools.

We found that South Africa has clear rules for educator appointments.

However, informal influence, uneven governance capacity and blurred stakeholder roles can affect what happens in practice.

In particular, we found that educators felt it wasn’t clear that appointment processes were followed properly.

These insights matter because who becomes a teacher, head of department, deputy principal or principal is not simply an internal school staffing matter.

These decisions shape school leadership, teaching and learning, staff morale and communities’ confidence in public education.

For parents, educators and school communities, the concern is whether people are appointed to responsible positions because they are suited to the role, or because of connections or influence.

A problem identified a decade ago In 2016, the ministerial task team chaired by Professor John Volmink investigated allegations of irregularities in the appointment of educators.

The report identified: undue influence by union members and other actors over governing bodies and selection processes cadre deployment (placing organisationally or politically aligned people in positions) weak departmental oversight, particularly at provincial, district and circuit levels limited capacity among school governing bodies (the statutory bodies responsible for governing public schools, with parents forming the majority of voting members).