SOUND SUBSTANTIVE LAW APPLICATION YET DUBIOUS ADJECTIVAL PROCESS IN R K v Minister of Basic Education [2019] ZASCA 192

S K’s was a life cut short. He was another victim of the dangerous and unsanitary school pit-latrine system, a rudimentary toilet infrastructure consisting of concrete slabs covering a French drain, with large holes that serve as a death trap for young pupils who accidentally fall through. Thousands of children from underprivileged conditions face this shameful latrine system daily, despite ageing government promises to address the situation promptly.The injustice of five-year-old S K’s horrible drowning in a pit latrine at his Limpopo primary school in 2014 was finally vindicated in R K v Minister of Basic Education ([2019] ZASCA 192) when the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) delivered judgment in December 2019. The court awarded general damages to S K’s family based on the emotional shock that they suffered and held that the common law is flexible enough to come to the aid of the aggrieved family. Although the court declined to award constitutional damages, it added to the context-sensitive body of jurisprudence that outlines constitutional damages as a relatively novel concept within the South African law of damages.