Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an educational approach that, by being a catalyst of social change, promotes sustainability. Although South African education policy and practice appear to be oriented towards ESD, the concept is contested, and ragged with ambiguity and vagueness. Because the transformation of South African education is primarily aimed at social change, such vagueness and ambiguity could prevent the achievement of the vision of an education system that contributes to social change and sustainable development. In this article, we construct a model case scenario to assist in clarifying the concept of ESD. A model case scenario, we contend, might not only lead to an advanced understanding of the concept, but could also serve as an informative tool with which to comment on the extent to which an education system has responded to the call to promote sustainable development. A model case scenario could therefore assist the promotion of the appropriate and unambiguous use of the concept ESD and the alignment of education policy and practice to achieve the transformational goals of the "South African Constitution," and of South African education.