The South African Human Rights Commission has found the Mpumalanga department of education has violated learner’s rights to education.

This is after 679,837 learners in the province did not have all required textbooks in the 2017/18 financial year. DA lodged a complaint with the commission in October last year about a severe shortage of textbooks in the province.

Commission’s provincial manager Eric Mokonyama said after considering the department’s 2017/18 annual report the commission noted that the department admitted to not being able to meet its target relating to the provision of school textbooks.

“The Auditor-General indicated that the audited value of the percentage of learners provided with the required textbooks in all grades and in all subjects as being 31.26%  as opposed to the reported 63%,” Mokonyama said.

The commission also conducted surveys in various schools across the province and they discovered that shortage of school textbooks still persist.

“The commission has determined that there is a prima facie violation of children’s rights to basic education in Mpumalanga,” he said.

Mpumalanga department was then requested to address the commission on the following:

-The impact that the shortages in school textbooks has had on teaching and learning across public schools in the province.

- The steps taken by the department to address these shortages.

DA’s Mpumalanga premier candidate Jane Sithole accused the department of systematically killing the future of thousands of young people and ensuring that they too end up joining the ranks of  the unemployed.

“We will continue fighting for learners in Mpumalanga until each and every learner can be guaranteed a quality education in a save school that have adequate sanitation facilities,” Sithole said.

Mpumalanga education department was not immediately available for a comment.