Johannesburg - Civil rights body Section 27 has joined a court action against the department of basic education over vacant teacher posts in the Eastern Cape.
It said on Wednesday it would argue that the department had breached the right to basic education by failing to fill vacancies.
The application, brought by the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of the Centre for Child Law, would be heard by the Eastern Cape High Court in Grahamstown on July 12.
Last month, the provincial department said it was seeing to the issue of non-payment of temporary teachers and the filling of at least 7500 vacant teacher posts in the province.
Section 27 said in a statement the application related to both the national and the provincial departments' failure to implement teacher post establishment for 2012.
“Post establishment process determines how many educators are allocated to specific schools. The failure to implement the post establishments has led to a failure to appoint teachers to vacant posts, placing many schools in a state of crisis and financial peril.”
It was important to get clarity from the court, since the department had been under national administration since March last year, Section 27 said.
“More than a year later posts have not been filled. Both the departments have a mandate to fulfil their duties.” - Sapa