Inside Education Freedom
Edition 7 – 10 July 2026
A regular update from the Pestalozzi Trust on legal, policy, and advocacy developments affecting home schooling in South Africa.
A year after the Pestalozzi Trust launched its Constitutional Court challenge concerning the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, 2024, the main papers in the case have now been filed.
This is a major milestone.
The Trust’s case is not asking the Court to decide whether every part of the BELA Act is good or bad policy. It is a procedural case. At its heart is a simple constitutional question: was the public, including home educators, given a real and meaningful opportunity to participate before the BELA Act was passed?
The Trust argues that Parliament, the National Council of Provinces, and the Provincial Legislatures did not properly fulfil their constitutional duty to facilitate meaningful public participation. This matters because BELA directly affects home education, children, families, and the right to basic education.
The Trust filed the case in July 2025. Videos from the day the case was filed at the Constitutional Court feature Shaun Green and Uda de Wet. Shaun is a homeschooling dad and Trustee of the Pestalozzi Trust, and Uda de Wet a homeschooling mom and member of the Executive of the Trust. Her kids also attended the filing on the day, as well as Christopher Cordeiro and Karin van Oostrum. Watch the video of taken on that day of Shaun Green here and of Uda de Wet here. Discover how the media responded by reading the first edition of Inside Education Freedom here.
After the case was launched, the State took a long time to respond. The Trust wrote several letters to the Chief Justice, after which her office directed the State to file its answering papers in February 2026.
The State’s response was substantial. It included affidavits from Parliament, the Department of Basic Education, the Provincial Legislatures, and the Presidency. Together, the four affidavits came to more than 1,000 pages, with thousands of additional pages of annexures.
Because of the size and complexity of these papers, the Trust asked the Constitutional Court for time until 25 May 2026 to file its reply. The Court granted this request. The Trust then completed and served its replying affidavit by 22 May 2026, comfortably within the time allowed.
The filing of the replying affidavit means that the key papers are now before the Constitutional Court. The Trust filed its founding affidavit, the State filed its answering papers, and the Trust has now filed its reply.
The next step is for the matter to receive further directions from the Chief Justice, including the question of a hearing date. It is not possible to predict exactly when this will happen. The process could still take a considerable time, possibly as long as two years or more. The Trust is provisionally preparing for a hearing in 2027, while remaining ready for any eventuality.
The relief sought by the Trust is practical and responsible. The Trust asks the Court to declare that the constitutional duties of public participation were not properly fulfilled, and to declare the BELA Act invalid. However, the Trust also asks that any declaration of invalidity be suspended for two years.
This is important. A suspension would avoid unnecessary disruption and uncertainty, while giving Parliament an opportunity to redo the process properly and constitutionally.
For home educators and for the wider public, the significance of this case goes beyond one Act. It is about the way laws are made in South Africa. It is about whether small, dispersed, and directly affected communities can be treated as an afterthought in the legislative process.
When a law directly affects children, families, and education, public participation must be more than a formality. It must be genuine. It must be accessible. And it must be capable of influencing the outcome.
That is why the BELA case matters.
Inside Education Freedom is published by the Pestalozzi Trust, defending home schooling in South Africa since 1998.
