Pupils find school locked

Parents take MEC’s closure of Uitzig Secondary to appeals court

UITZIG Secondary pupils were in for a disappointing start to their academic year when they arrived to find locked gates yesterday, on education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s insistence that it be shut for good.

The quintile 1 school in Elsies River serves some of Cape Town’s poorest teenagers.

Schäfer decided to close the institution after concluding it was “not appropriate” to build a new school to accommodate fewer than 100 pupils.

The matter was challenged in court, and towards the end of last year the Western Cape High Court dismissed an application brought by the school governing body, challenging Schäfer’s decision to close.

Attorney Jerald Andrews has taken on the fight on behalf of parents and pupils, and this week filed a notice of motion in the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal the high court’s finding.

In the papers before court Andrews argued that the school should stay open pending finalisation of the case.

In his affidavit, Andrews said the school’s infrastructure had fallen into disrepair due to the Western Cape Education Department and the provincial Department of Public Works’ failure to secure the property.

“It was absolute chaos (yesterday), the children arrived at the school and it was locked. They have vowed to come back to school every day. Parents are scared to send their children to other schools as one small road could be a gang boundary, leaving pupils vulnerable and putting their lives in danger should they have to walk to another school. Teachers were told to report to the district office and the school was locked,” Andrews said.

Schäfer yesterday said that on legal advice the school would stay closed.

“We have been informed that the school enrolled an additional 28 children, despite being aware that the court has upheld the decision to close on two occasions.

“When I made the decision to close the school, one of the factors I took into consideration was gang violence, as I know that there is a prevalence of it in that area,” she said.

“I was assured by officials that a number of learners had moved to other schools and had not experienced any gang-related issues or danger in this regard.”

Schäfer said the matric pass rate of 15.4% also showed “it is in nobody’s interest to remain at that school”.