The success of a country’s education system depends to a large extent on themutual trust and co-op eration e xisting between all partners. However, numerous documented incidents in the media have confirmed that there is a field of tension between school governing bodies of public schools in South Africa and the Department of Ed ucatio n, which is of great concern to all partners in the system, especially as these parent bodies were established by the current government to be partne rs in the management of their children’s schools. This empirical investigation was undertaken to identify and analyse the origin and extent of the tension and to suggest practical and workable solutions to defuse the situation. The views of respondents from both parties were e licited and the results confirme d the existence of ten sion and mistrust
