1. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) wishes to draw the attention of all public schools to the prescripts of sections 38 and 38A of the South African Schools Act (SASA), 1996 (Act 84 of 1996), respectively.
2. Section 38 of SASA, reads as follows:

38(1) A governing body of a public school must prepare a budget each year according to the prescriptions determined by the Member of the Executive Council in a Provincial Gazette, which shows the estimated income and expenditure of the school for the following financial year.
(2) Before a budget referred to in subsection (1) is approved by the governing body, it must be presented to a general meeting of parents convened on at least 30 days' notice, for consideration and approval by a majority of parents present and voting.
(3) The notice contemplated in subsection (2) must also inform the parents that the budget will be available for inspection at the school at least 14 days prior to the meeting.
3. In respect of section 38A, please note that this circular replaces all previous circulars in this regard and all previous circulars are therefore considered expired. The procedure when applying for section 38A is set out further in this circular and the attached Application Procedure.
4. The submission of fully completed section 38A applications for 2018 will be accepted from 01 August 2017. Thereafter applications must be submitted from 01 August annually.
5. Fully completed applications will be finalised within 4 weeks after receipt and incomplete applications will be returned with reasons, whereupon it will only be reconsidered as a newly submitted application when a fully completed application is submitted.
6. School budgets and budget meeting minutes will not be required or utilised as part of section 38A applications.
7. Governing bodies are requested in terms of section 38A(8) of SASA to ensure that the expenditure in respect of section 38A is clearly marked as an item on the approved budget which is submitted to the district office.
8. Governing bodies are expected to only make use of the attached Annexures A1, A2 and A3 as provided by WCED. Annexures on school letterheads or any other altered annexures will not be accepted and such applications will be regarded as incomplete. Annexures A1, A2 and A3 must be signed by the chairperson of the governing body as indicated on the forms attached; unsigned annexures will be regarded as incomplete.
9. The governing bodies’ attention is also specifically drawn to subparagraph 1.4 of the Application Procedure (attached) with regard to the procedure that must be followed when applying for additional remuneration for newly appointed WCED employees who are appointed during the course of the year after approval of the initial section 38A application has been given.
10. Failure to adhere to the procedure as set out in this circular and the Application Procedure will result in a possible refusal of the application.
11. Kindly bring the contents of this circular to the attention of all relevant role players.


SIGNED: BK SCHREUDER
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2017:09:06

South African Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996)  (size: 255 KB)
Application Procedure Sec 38A  (size: 60 KB)
Annexure A1: School governing body application  (size: 53 KB)
Annexure A2: Application to remunerate  (size: 53 KB)
Annexure A3: State employee application  (size: 48 KB)
Rubric For Section 38A  (size: 71 KB)
School Checklist Sec 38A  (size: 35 KB)