Reprieve for Uitsig a ‘victory’
Judge grants interim order to open school
IN WHAT has been hailed as a victory, the Western Cape High Court granted an interim interdict to keep the run-down Uitsig High School open pending a separate Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling on the school’s future.
Since last year, trade union Cosatu, education activists and the community of Uitsig, near Elsies River, have demonstrated and petitioned the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to keep the perilous school in a gang-infested area open.
The Western Cape High Court ruled last year in favour of Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, to close the school.
Cosatu, though, is appealing against that ruling and has served Schäfer with papers advising her of an application at the SCA. Schäfer refused to keep the school open, prompting Cosatu to seek an interdict.
In granting the interim order, Acting Judge Thabani Masuku said the crucial question was whether the department’s decision to close down the school could be suspended pending a SCA decision.
“The second procedural question depends on the outcome of the first one. In the event that (certain legislation) does not apply, in that there is no decision (regarding suspension)
This is a clear indication of the disregard that Schäfer has for learners and due process in South Africa
by the lodging of an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal, what should a litigant who has lodged an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal do to prevent the execution and implementation of an administrative decision pending that application for leave to appeal?
The first respondent contends that such a litigant must apply for an interdict to prevent the implementation and execution of an administrative decision,” Masuku said. He ordered that the school be reopened and that the WCED pay the legal fees of Cosatu’s legal representatives.
Former provincial Cosatu secretary Tony Ehrenreich said the court ruled in favour of Uitsig learners against Schäfer, who he claims has a disregard for black working-class communities.
“This is a clear indication of the disregard that Schäfer has for learners
and due process in South Africa. It is a victory for education in our communities,” he said.
In 2017, the high court also ordered that the school remain open after Schäfer ordered that pupils from the school be moved to the nearby Ravensmead High School because their school had been vandalised so badly that teaching could not continue.
Lionel Adriaanse, a fierce supporter of keeping the school open, said the learners would have some sort of hope until the SCA’s decision.
“We have fought hard through the bureaucratic nonsense of this Western Cape government.
“We will continue to do this and not be dictated by those in government,” he said.
Cosatu provincial secretary Malvern de Bruyn said: “We hope that the DA-driven agenda of MEC Schäfer will now be shelved, and that she and her department be willing to adhere to the court ruling. The learners of Uitsig are eager to continue their schooling year.”
In response, Schäfer said: “We are extremely saddened that learners are going to have to continue attending a school where they are not receiving the best education we can give them.”