This article focuses on the extent to which the legislative framework and education-funding models applicable to school education in South Africa post-1994 have, in attempting to address historical inequalities, resulted in a particular form of privatisation of public education. The article sets out the extent of the autonomy available to all public schools and the specific autonomy exercised by Section 21 schools. It also examines the impact on autonomy of the funding and the human resourcing of these schools. Against the background of this broad autonomy the article sets out the controls available to the state to bring balance to the situation and raises the question of the possibly decisive role of extensive community payment, community control through elected governing bodies and the implications of these for equity.