Abstract:
In 2013 there are still thousands of children in South Africa attending dilapidated mud schools, schools
lacking sanitation, and schools without electricity. The situation took a positive turn in 2009 when the
government was taken to court about the severe infrastructure backlogs in the Eastern Cape province.
The case settled out of court, and resulted in a memorandum of agreement which pledged R 8.2 billion
over three years. However, the allocation of these and other funds has not immediately translated into
tangible results on a broad scale. This is because large infrastructure projects require management
capacity that is lacking in Department of Education in South Africa. This paper demonstrates the
justiciability of the right to education, and shows that litigation, implementation monitoring and
budgetary analysis may be new tools to lever funds for education at the country level, and to hold
government accountable for efficient spending. The significance of this to the post-2015 development
context is that developing countries must find new methods for ensuring the provision and expenditure
of funds from existing budgets within their own countries. In order to achieve this education activists
must forge new alliances with partners who have knowledge in budgeting, budgetary analysis and
where necessary, litigation.
