This paper deals with obstacles and possibilities of the new curriculum of South Africa, Curriculum 2005. As a background, the history of South Africa and its school system is presented, as well as official documents and articles on the curriculum. The research for the paper has been carried out in a South African township-school for a period of ten weeks. Data has been collected through observations, participating observations (teaching) and interviews. Participating in the research were educators, learners, principals and an Education Development Officer. In the results it is shown that the implementation of the Curriculum 2005 has been difficult to carry out at the school. This is mainly due to the lack of resources and the big class-sizes. Another main obstacle is the training for the new curriculum that the educators received, which the interviewed persons all consider to be too short. Many of them also consider the Curriculum 2005 to be too vague and contain difficult terminology. All interviewed persons consider the idea behind the new curriculum to be very good, and they want the change to take place. The educators at the school participate actively in discussions about the new teaching methods. Another advantage stated in the interviews is the increased co-operation between different stakeholders at the school. The Curriculum 2005 is under development and it is therefore impossible to give a complete picture of obstacles and possibilities. What is shown in this paper is the situation as it is now, in a time when the heritage of apartheid still has a great influence on the conditions of life in South Africa.