Petition to halt appeal by education officials

Education lobby group Equal Education will stop at nothing to prevent the department of basic education from appealing against a Bhisho High Court ruling on the norms and standards for infrastructure at schools.

The group is calling on citizens to sign an online petition – which it hopes will stop the appeal.

In July, the court ruled that some of the regulations in the norms and standards for school infrastructure which the government promulgated five years ago are unconstitutional, invalid and must be amended.

The ruling was in favour of Equal Education’s application to force basic education minister Angie Motshekga to fix the loopholes or escape clauses in the legislated minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure and to meet school infrastructure deadlines.

Motshekga was ordered to amend the regulations and to pay the applicant’s legal costs.

On the day of the judgment, education spokesperson Elijah Mhlana said outside the court that the department would not appeal against the ruling.

However, last month he confirmed plans to appeal.

Equal Education spokesperson Leanne Jansen-Thomas said 1,000 signatures had already been gathered and it was planned to hand them over to President Cyril Ramaphosa once as many signatures as possible had been collected.

“The petition will be handed to President Ramaphosa, minister Motshekga and the MECs once we’ve collected as many signatures as possible.

“The objective is for minister Motshekga and each of the nine education MECs to recognise the criticalness of the norms and standards judgment of the Bhisho High Court, and to withdraw their appeal against it,” Jansen-Thomas said.

The group has not set any target for the number of signatures.

On Monday, Motshekga said the appeal had nothing to do with the department’s willingness to provide school infrastructure.

She wanted other ministers, and even Eskom, also to be held accountable for failure to meet norms and standards deadlines. –