Pupils show their legal wiles in Moot Court competition
FOUR Cape Town high schools have won the provincial leg of the annual national Moot Court schools competition, which took place at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
The winning schools were Kayamandi High, Oval North High, Springfield Convent and Norman Henshilwood High School.
The competition, organised by the Department of Education, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Human Rights Commission, and supported by South African universities such as the University of Pretoria, UCT, UWC, and University of Venda, saw pupils prepared for a fiercely contested debate in court, under issues seen to be a key challenge in the country’s schools today.
Speaking in court last night, advocate Hishaam Mohamed said: “More than 100 learners from various schools in the Western Cape are present today, and the objective of this competition is to create greater awareness among the youth of the values enshrined in our constitution
“This year, we are also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the South African constitution. The legal challenge to be presented relates to the constitutionality of a school rule which discriminates against a learner, who was charged with contravening the schools code of conduct by using hate speech and acting in a racist manner while protesting against the schools language policy.”.
The competition, aimed at giving pupils the opportunity to engage with legal practitioners, while also learning to practise matters of the constitution, allowed for them to argue and discuss the racial issue involving a pupil from the Krugersdorp High School, Sipho Seakamela.
Speaking to Monet Bekker, a grade 10 Rhenish Girls’ High pupil who played the role of an appellant in the court case, she said participating in the case had given her an understanding of the South African legal system.
“The first thing that this role gave me is a better understanding of the actual laws that are in place, since we live in a society where racism still remains an issue, and people tend to have predispositions about it, and assume a whole bunch of laws are in place.
“Researching this case was an eye-opener for me on what actually a right is, what could be backed up by facts and documents, and what is just made up by the rest of society,” she said.
Monet, with Estelle Hislop, who is in grade 11, argued for a case involving the pupil and a teacher, Mr Whitey Swart.
On the day of commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Soweto students uprising, 18-year-old Seakamela reportedly started depicting posters of the 1976 events in his school hall, and made racial remarks at the teacher.
Another issue which the pupils placed focus on in the debate was Afrikaans being compulsory for all pupils.
This included what Seakamela fought for, which then reportedly led to the destruction of the school’s property.
Estelle said: “Being in the discussion around this topic was quite mind-opening for me and taught me a lot on the rule law and the rights in our constitution.”
The annual court competition, which also aims to further raise awareness in respect of language and culture issues in schools, saw 21 schools in Western Cape participating during the first round of the competition.
Last night saw the provincial round of the competition, which was held in preparation for the four schools, to participate in the preliminary round, set to take place in Gauteng from October 5-8.
“I hope this competition will ignite a flame in our learners so that one day we will see them on the bench of our Constitutional Court, perhaps being the future of justice of South Africa, State prosecutors, State attorneys, State of Law Advisers or human rights lawyers,” said Mohamed.