Stop passing the buck and fix our schools now

In November 2013 basic education minister Angie Motshekga published legally binding norms and standards for school infrastructure, making it law that every school should have water, electricity, working toilets, safe classrooms with a maximum of 40 pupils, security, and thereafter libraries, laboratories and sports facilities. The first deadline was November 2016. The government failed to deliver. NGO Equal Education (EE) then filed court papers to compel Motshekga to meet the targets and plug some loopholes in the law. The loopholes EE identified included an “escape clause” that made the department responsible for fixing schools only to the extent that other parts of the state, such as Eskom and the public works department, made their resources available. EE also cited a lack of public accountability and demanded that school infrastructure plans be made available to the public.

Acting judge Nomawabo Msizi ruled in favour of EE on Thursday, finding the escape clause inconsistent with the constitution, with the South African Schools Act, and with the 2013 court order secured by EE.

The judge also found a regulation referring to schools made “entirely” of inappropriate materials was inconsistent with the constitution and should be changed to “all classrooms built entirely or substantially” of inappropriate materials. Motshekga was ordered to amend the regulations and to pay the applicant’s legal costs.

This ruling will hopefully protect the interests – and maybe even lives – of hundreds of children at Schornville Primary School near King William’s Town. The Dispatch reported last week on how their parents felt they had no option but to keep the children home, fearing for their safety.

The decision to boycott classes at Schornville comes after 14 years of broken promises to fix the building, described as a tragedy waiting to happen. The school already made news last April when a pupil fell through the floor. World icon Tata Nelson Mandela – whose centenary birthday celebrations we celebrated in the same week as the Bhisho judgment and the Schornville cry for justice – was a man who dedicated much of his later life to fundraising to build schools.

Surely, in his honour, the least the department can do is replace unsafe school buildings.

Our future leaders deserve better.

This ruling will hopefully protect the interests – and maybe even lives – of hundreds of children