South African results in the PIRLS2006 were the lowest in the study despite the fact that South African Grade 5 students were compared with grade 4 students internationally. Extensive media coverage followed the national release in November 2007 and there is considerable concern amongst those involved in education. The results have significant implications for South Africa’s education system in general. Not coincidentally, the National Department of Education, within days of the national results being released, announced a plan for a literacy campaign at primary school level. This paper presents the national results for South Africa across all 11 languages and at two grade levels. The performance is described in terms of each of the PIRLS four benchmarks to examine the extent of the “crisis” in comparison to the performance of other European participants in the study. This paper also discusses the implications of the dismal performance in this international study. South Africa participated in the Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS) for the first time in the PIRLS 2006. PIRLS was the most complex research conducted on reading literacy in South Africa to date. Internationally most countries participating in PIRLS assessed pupils in one grade and in one language. In South Africa, pupils were assessed in two grades and the children were assessed in all of the official 11 languages in more than 400 schools. In the paper, the language competency is each of the 11 languages is examined to ascertain the ability of the students to manage the reading levels expected in PIRLS. To date the findings suggest first language English and Afrikaans children achieved higher scores on the PIRLS tests. African children attending suburban schools requiring them to speak English from grade 1 achieved higher scores than those African children attending less resourced township schools and learning through the medium of their home language. However, children who spoke Sepedi at home also achieved the highest scores amongst the nine African languages in the study and these data will be examined to ascertain what the possible explanations for this performance. The PIRLS 2006 represents the first achievement data available or South Africa for each of the 11 languages at this level and against which international benchmarks are available. Therefore, the richness of this significant study’s data needs to be optimised in order to provide a deeper understanding of primary school children’s ability to read and succeed in schooling.