This paper critically reviews the ways in which the policy of education decentralisation in post-apartheid South Africa results in both forms of inclusion and new forms of exclusion. Drawing on a two-year research project carried out in three provinces in South Africa, it shows how in the governance of schools, new forms of exclusion are being generated. It thus throws into sharp relief the policy effects of education decentralisation in South Africa, illuminating through case study data the disjuncture between policy intention and effect. It argues for the need to re-examine some aspects of post-apartheid education policy given the historical apartheid legacy. It suggests that often, in practice, policies of education decentralisation may exacerbate rather than reduce inequities in society; they may exclude more than include.