The National Education Crisis Forum

Former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke convenes the National Education Crisis Forum (the Forum), which is made up of nine Co-Convenors – Ms Santie Botha, Mr Sello Hatang, Mr Jabu Mabuza, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Prof. Mary Metcalfe, Judge Yvonne Mokgoro, Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, Mr Jay Naidoo and Prof. Pitika Ntuli, all of whom are prominent members of South African civil society who have been directly involved with education in South Africa at various levels, and are specifically engaged with the current crisis unfolding at universities.

Reason for the Forum's existence

South Africa is on the cusp of a systemic crisis in education. The education crisis affects all levels of education in South Africa – from early childhood development through to tertiary education – and reflects a societal problem produced by policy choices made over various epochs in South African history, including the apartheid and post-apartheid era. The crisis is evident in the perpetuation of inequality as well as exclusion and marginalisation on various grounds, including race, gender, class and a range of others, in which dominance is created and normalised and discrimination is meted out to those who, through such a prism of dominance, are considered to constitute “the other”.