Durban - The youth guild of trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday that the state's incompetence had been exposed after Gauteng's department of education (GDE) had to approach a private school group to help with public school placements.

“For years, Solidarity has been warning the GDE, and the MEC Mr Panyaza Lesufi in particular, that its central placement system will end up in disaster, and unfortunately, we have been proven to be right,” said Paul Maritz of Solidarity Youth.

The department had to approach private schooling group Curro to help with potential placements if needed, Lesufi said on Tuesday.

"Although Mr Lesufi claims that hundreds of schools still have places available, his department’s urgent cry for help proves the opposite. They are unprepared for the placement task that they have assigned to themselves.

“The private sector is so often disparaged from all sides. Only last week several organisations wanted to nationalise private schools, and now this very same private sector has to come to the rescue of the struggling state department,” said Maritz.