The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) delivered a significant judgment on Wednesday, in which it stated that the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE’s) failure to provide learners in Limpopo with textbooks directly infringed on their rights to basic education, equality and dignity and amounted to unfair discrimination.

The Department’s appeal in the Limpopo textbooks saga was dismissed and education rights lobby group Basic Education For All’s (Befa’s) cross appeal was upheld. The SCA also found that the DBE was in breach of previous court orders.
 
The first order of court in the Limpopo textbooks case, on May 17, 2012, declared that “the failure of the Limpopo Department of Basic Education and the Department of Basic Education to provide textbooks to schools in Limpopo [was] a violation of the rights to a basic education [and] equal dignity”.
 
“Twenty-one years into our democracy – and after three more High Court orders from Kollapen J and Tuchten J in a similar guise – the State appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, arguing that this was an ‘impossible standard of perfection’ and that the right to a basic education only requires a reasonable plan for realisation,” said public interest law centre Section27 in a statement.

Befa, Section27 and the South African Human Rights Commission argued that the right was immediately realisable and required the State to do everything possible to fulfill the right.
 
By dismissing the State’s case, the court reinforced the immediately realisable nature of the right to basic education, added Section27. 

“The judgment also articulates the State’s obligation to learners in Limpopo who have had to contend with competing with their peers from a position of serious disadvantage. It cannot be ignored that the learners without textbooks are poor, black, marginalised learners, primarily located in rural areas, whose rights in a democratic South Africa have not yet been fully realized,” stated Section27.

The judgment made important pronouncements on the rights of learners in Limpopo to have access to a full complement of textbooks at the start of the year and on the State’s obligation to learners.
 
“In a critical year in which court orders have been flouted by the State, such as in the [Omar al-] Bashir judgment, Befa and Section27 call upon the Department of Basic Education to respect the rulings of the court and ensure that the learners of Limpopo in particular, their parents and communities as well as other learners throughout South Africa truly experience a better life for all that was envisaged for the nation by those who fought for freedom.”
 
Section27 said the judgment was a vindication for Befa and its members, who had been intimidated for standing for the rights of learners but continued out of conviction. 

Further, it was also a vindication of the many unsung heroes who have fought for the right to basic education in Limpopo at great personal expense, the law centre stated.

These individuals included Limpopo Department of Education acting CFO Solly Tshitangano, who exposed the corruption in the department and brought the story of the Limpopo textbook saga to the attention the nation.
 
Befa and Section27 believe that the Limpopo textbooks saga was unnecessary and the legal action that ensued as a result of the state’s recalcitrance was unwarranted and wasteful expenditure.

“Through all this a generation of poor, black students in Limpopo are still without their full complement of textbooks and continue to be condemned to lives of intellectual and material poverty not dissimilar to that of their parents’ generation,” said Section27 in its statement.

Click here to read the full judgment.