Hon Deputy Speaker, I thank the hon Meshoe for raising this question, because it does give us an opportunity to clarify the situation. Firstly, as far back as 2011, a service level agreement was concluded between the department of education in Limpopo and the service provider, EduSolutions. It is, indeed, correct that we received information from Treasury, which is responsible for the overall administration, that there are elements that are noncompliant in terms of this particular exercise and we should basically seek to cancel the agreement. Thereupon, the Department of Basic Education did, indeed, cancel the agreement.
Now, this is a very interesting situation, because if we had not done so, the question that the hon Meshoe is asking would be that, notwithstanding the fact that we had information or were requested to cancel the agreement, we chose to proceed. On the basis of strong legal opinion, what the department then did was to cancel the agreement. EduSolutions then launched an application to court, seeking to enforce the agreement. The matter was opposed and the application was dismissed with costs. So, the service providers that supplied the books after the interventions were not EduSolutions, but the publishers.
What we can convey to this House is that the cost at which we procured the textbooks was about one third of the cost that was originally projected. So, it was a huge cost-saving exercise. Yes, there was a delay, but, on the other hand, certainly, we contributed very directly to a more efficient pricing of these commodities.
We can also assure the House that, in terms of next year, there have already been negotiations with the publishers and, certainly, the rate at which we are going to be procuring in Limpopo will be far more competitive than it has ever been before. So, that will also amount to a saving to the fiscus. Thank you very much. [Applause.]