Equal Education media statement: Victory for Equal Education and South Africa’s learners as Bhisho High Court orders government must #FixTheNorms and #FixOurSchools!
19 July 2018
Today the Bhisho High Court ruled entirely in Equal Education’s (EE) favour in the #FixTheNorms case, including declaring aspects of the school infrastructure law that allowed government to indefinitely delay fixing the unsafe and inadequate infrastructure in South African schools, as “unconstitutional” and “invalid”.
The Court gave a Constitutionally sound interpretation of the State’s duties to properly address the crisis conditions of South African schools. In doing so, acting Judge Nomawabo Msizi reinforced the nature of the right to basic education and honour Michael Komape and Lumka Mkhethwa.
The relevant law is the Regulations Relating to Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure (referred to as Norms and Standards). The Norms and Standards stipulate infrastructure standards that all public schools must meet and deadlines by when various kinds of infrastructure must be provided to schools. However, the law was laced with unconstitutional loopholes and vagueness.
We asked the court to deal with five problems in the Norms and Standards, and this is what the Bhisho High Court today declared on each: