The DBE textbook story that South Africa isn’t being told
I saw the earlier Lighthouse textbook tender thread and wanted to share this Daily Maverick article because it adds a lot of context that I think many people may not have seen.
I’m not involved with Lighthouse in any way, just an acquaintance of some of the people connected to it. Watching this unfold from a distance has honestly been quite surreal. What I saw was an incredibly hardworking group of people taking a massive personal and financial risk on something they genuinely believed could improve Foundation Phase literacy and mother-tongue education.
Whatever people ultimately think about the tender outcome itself, this article presents a much more detailed picture of the people involved, how the work was actually produced, and the wider industry dynamics around the story.
What struck me most was watching what should have been a major achievement for a small and ambitious team turn almost overnight into a national scandal before any investigation had even concluded.
Reading both sides has definitely made me think more critically about how quickly narratives form online, and how influential large media ecosystems can be in shaping public perception I just think it’s important that people also get to read the other side of the story.