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

At Badirile Secondary School in Khutsong, authorities found knives, a panga, drugs, vapes and other prohibited items during a South African Police Service-led search-and-seizure operation. The haul has made the Carletonville school a stark symbol of Gauteng’s struggle to keep classrooms safe.

“This is one of the schools that is very notorious,” Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile said. He described threats against teachers, including warnings that learners would call zama zamas and criminals to murder educators. The school, he said, had become associated with violence, gangsterism, poor discipline and absenteeism.

Badirile is part of a wider provincial crisis. Gauteng schools recorded more than 4,600 violent incidents and over 4,100 vandalism cases across five years, as well as nearly 400 sexual-misconduct incidents. Parents, educators and school governing bodies have repeatedly raised concerns about bullying, learner-on-learner violence, substance abuse, vandalism and crime around schools.

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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.

A provincial environmental analysis by the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance examined more than 1,300 schools and identified 245 as high risk. It listed gang-related violence, bullying, substance abuse, theft, vandalism, sexual harassment and criminal activity around schools among the main threats.

The education department has responded with unannounced raids carried out with SAPS and other law-enforcement agencies. Since the operation began in early August 2026, officials have searched at least 23 high-risk schools and seized weapons, cannabis, disposable vapes and cigarettes. The department has also turned to private security at 422 schools and CCTV systems at 606 sites, including through a partnership with Vodacom.

Maile has warned that learners cannot study effectively in environments shaped by fear, intimidation or violence. The security measures aim to remove prohibited items and make schools safer, though the scale of the problem reaches beyond individual raids.

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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.