Purpose: This paper aims to explore and describe the limits of recent law-based school reform in South Africa from an education management perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The research design consists of a qualitative, investigative, descriptive and contextual design which Merriam would classify as a basic or generic design type. Findings: The findings revealed specific problems associated with recent mandated changes in South African schools. These were classified as categories (themes) within the research design and described in detail: lack of local skills capacity at school and district levels; the "knowing and doing" gap; the tensions created by legal issues between teachers and learners; too many changes too rapidly; bureaucratic red tape; top-down approach; contextual factors. Research limitations/implications: The paper explored the problems associated with mandated changes in South African schools in one province. The sample is very limited and therefore further study is needed to fully understand the lack of implementation in the 25,139 public schools country wide. Originality/value: This paper recognises the seminal work done by De Mitchell and Fossey on the limits of law-based school reform but adds illumination on the lack of implementation of mandated changes within the South African context. (Contains 1 figure, 3 tables and 1 note.)