Article published on LEGAL RESOURCES CENTRE – 24 June 2015
South Africa’s first opt-in class action law suit, Linkside & others v Minister of Education & others, was the first to appoint a claims administrator to manage the payment of a claim. Following the court order of 17 December 2014, PriceWaterhouseCoopers was appointed by the Department of Education to receive and verify schools’ claims for reimbursement for amounts spent on educators during 2011–2014 and to pay the verified claims.
The total amount claimed was R82 million. To date, schools have been reimbursed an amount of R67 million, with a few outstanding claims awaiting verification.
The Legal Resources Centre, acting on behalf of all the schools that make up the class, says the schools are immensely relieved to receive this funding.
”Many schools have been placed in a perilous financial condition due to the Department’s ongoing failure to appoint educators to vacant substantive posts and pay them. Individual schools have accumulated between R200 000 and R5 million in debt over this period. This has resulted in schools increasing their fees, but this has often resulted in a higher rate of parents defaulting on payments.”
Read the full article here