School can’t take more pupils, judge rules
THE North Gauteng High Court has ruled that the 55 learners who wanted to be admitted and taught English at a school that only accommodates Afrikaans-speaking pupils cannot attend the school due to capacity constraints.
“I have come to a conclusion that the school has reached its objective on entry level learner capacity. The head of department can, in any event, declare it full,” said Judge Bill Prinsloo.
Hoerskool Overvaal and the Gauteng Department of Education were last week embroiled in a two-day court battle, with the school insisting that it could not admit the learners because of capacity issues and a lack of resources.
The Afrikaans-medium school in Vereeniging approached the court to review and set aside the department’s earlier instruction to admit 55 learners.
In his ruling, Judge Prinsloo said that if the department had made the effort, they would have known there was an abundance of space at neighbouring schools.
“There is compelling evidence that neighbouring English schools have the capacity to accommodate many more than 55 learners.”
The judge made the remarks despite the schools, General Smuts High School and Phoenix High School, submitting new affidavits that said they no longer had space, despite having previously claimed the contrary.
But Judge Prinsloo said it was unlikely that the two principals made such huge mistakes in the drafting of their initial affidavits.
He then dropped a bombshell and read out a WhatsApp message reportedly between the chairperson of the governing body and the two principals. In the message, which was in Afrikaans, the principals claimed they had changed their initial affidavits because the department had threatened to fire them unless they recanted their statements and declared the schools full.
Judge Prinsloo further stated he did not believe that one teacher would be able to handle the 55 learners.
In his closing remarks, the judge said he was convinced the school was already full, and also found that the department was trying to unlawfully force the school to become dual medium school on short notice. – African News Agency (ANA)