Inclusive education was formally established in South Africa through White Paper 6 of 2001 with the pertinent aim of including learners who experience barriers to learning into a single and undivided education system. This thrust was accepted by most stakeholders as a means of removing injustices from the past (DoE, 2001). Through the dialogue and document analysis of this article we have attempted not only to introduce the principles of social justice, but also to demonstrate the characteristics of the specific South African model on inclusive education and how this model has developed. We will provide a critical examination of how the meaning of social justice can be viewed with regard to distributive, retributive and recognitive justice and, finally, how the South African model of nuanced inclusive education weighs up against these forms of social justice.