The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) held its first formal meeting with homeschooling parents on 24 August 2026. The meeting was chaired by Lee‑Anne Hess, newly responsible for home education after the retirement of Mr. Deon Louw in 2025. The stated purpose was to engage with parents who have registered or are in the process of registering for home education. Cape Home Educators (CHE) attended at the request of several members.
A. BELA Act
WCED official Estelle Davids provided an overview of the BELA Act and clarified several operational interpretations:
1. No home visits will be conducted. However, pre‑registration consultation meetings will be done by district offices.
2. The national curriculum determined by the Minister is the same as CAPS.
3. The 60‑day deemed‑approval period refers to calendar days.
4. Parents do not require any specific qualifications to educate their children at home.
5. Applications will be submitted to a central email address, currently processed by a single official.
6. The email receipt date will be considered the official application date.
7. Parents who are competent assessors may not assess their own children, on the grounds of lack of independence and conflict of interest.
8. Parents should not begin home education until the application is approved, except in emergency situations.
B. Assessments and Concessions
The scheduled presenter, Ms. Monkie Chaane (DBE), was unavailable. Her colleague Ms. Lily Browne delivered the presentation instead. The content mirrored the national DBE–home educator meeting of 6 August 2026.
In her introduction, Ms. Browne encouraged parents to send voluntarily continuous assessment reports.
C. Online Registration System
WCED announced plans to launch an online registration system by the end of 2026. Due to time constraints, no demonstration or explanation of the system was provided.
D. CHE Comment
CHE raises a number of concerns about statements made by Ms. Browne and Ms. Davids:
1.National curriculum
The WCED’s statement that “the national curriculum determined by the Minister… is CAPS” is incorrect. Section 51(2)(a)(iii) refers to the national curriculum, not to CAPS, and CAPS is not itself a curriculum—it is a policy document that prescribes how public schools must implement the curriculum. The Minister determines the national curriculum at the level of content and skills, while CAPS is only one possible implementation of that curriculum.
2. Prohibition on parents assessing their own children
The BELA Act requires parents to submit reports from competent assessors, but does not require independence nor prohibit parents who hold the relevant qualifications from assessing their own children. The WCED interpretation is therefore ultra vires—an administrative requirement imposed without legislative authority.
3. Instruction not to start home education before approval
CHE argues that this interpretation infringes the constitutional right to parental care (Section 28 of the Constitution).
If parents determine that home education is in the best interests of their child, requiring them to delay implementation until officials—who have never met the child—grant authorisation is not supported by the BELA Act and undermines parental autonomy. Furthermore, the right to basic education of S29(1) in the constitution is an immediate realisable right and cannot be made dependent on administrative processes.
4. Voluntarily continuous assessment reports
The act only allows education departments to receive reports from competent assessors. It does not authorise education departments to receive any continuous assessment reports compiled by parents. It is therefore illegal to encourage parents to submit any additional information from parents, even if it is voluntary to submit it. Encouraging parents to submit additional information creates informal administrative burdens not authorised by law.
5. Announcement of an online registration platform
This is the first public disclosure of such a platform. CHE notes that:
* Any education information system must comply with National Education Information System (NEIS) regulations, which specify what data may or may not be stored to ensure that the system complies with the POPI Act. The POPI Act requires that only information strictly necessary for the administrative purpose may be collected or stored.
* NEIS regulations have only recently been published for comment and must still be finalised before WCED can draft regulations governing the online platform’s data collection and use.
* These regulations must be published for public comment before development begins.
CHE therefore argues that development should not proceed until the regulatory framework is properly established.
E. Planned CHE Action
CHE intends to write to the Western Cape MEC for Education requesting:
* Request that WCED issue a circular correcting misinterpretations communicated to parents.
* Immediate suspension of development of the online registration platform until appropriate regulations have been adopted.