The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga is planning to take the Provincial Department of Education to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for not providing learners with African language reading material.
In the recent 2023/2024 report, the Auditor General (AG) mentioned that 890 primary schools in Mpumalanga were not provided with Grade 3 African languages reading material. This affects over 106 000 Grade 3’s across the province.
For failing to provide these African languages reading material, the DA believes that the Provincial Department of Education has violated the learners’ Constitutional rights to education, hence we are planning to report them to the SAHRC.
According to Section 29 of the South African Constitution, everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult basic education; [1] and to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible. The Department is in violation of this Section for not making available and accessible to these learners the African languages reading material.
The DA believes that it is of great importance that all learners should be able to read in their own home language. Not providing Grade 3’s with African languages reading material, raises the question of the department’s commitment to bring African Languages into our schools.
It is also really unacceptable that these Grade 3 learners were unable to complete the curriculum due to the resources not being received and started this academic year at a disadvantage. The DA cannot allow this complacency to continue, so we want the SAHRC to get involved.
We also want department MEC, Cathy Dlamini, to tell the DA and the SAHRC, how will Mpumalanga learners ever be properly educated, if officials in the department cannot plan correctly to ensue learners have the material necessary to learn from?
The DA is also seriously concerned that there seems to be a pattern emerging in this province where resources in various Grades and subjects are not being delivered. From Grade 3 African language materials to Grade 12 tablets, one needs to question what else is not being delivered to our learners?
The DA will continue to fight for every Mpumalanga learner to get the tools they need to succeed in their education.