Advantage dad as primary school sports war rages on
Now at issue: how little boys were seeded for games
● The head of sport at a prestigious private school is said to have made a grovelling apology to a father of one of the pupils after admitting he ranked little boys for tennis without having watched them play.
The father is involved in a protracted legal battle with Pridwin Preparatory in Johannesburg after the school effectively expelled his sons in June 2016 for their father’s behaviour on the sidelines of school sports activities.
Also, in the latest twist, a school cricket umpire has recanted parts of his original affidavit, and now denies that the father threatened him and called him a “fat f**k”. He now claims he lied “to protect his job”.
The father says in a new affidavit that JP Joubert, a teacher at Pridwin, made the admission about Grade 3 tennis rankings after he queried why his son was placed last on a class tennis “seeding list”.
The father, a chartered accountant, and the boy’s mother, a psychiatrist, lost their high court challenge to set aside the school’s “cancellation of contract” — the expulsion — in July last year. They have been granted leave to appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal, and will do so in September.
More evidence
The father has now applied for leave to submit further evidence to the SCA, arguing that evidence placed before the High Court in Johannesburg by Pridwin principal Selwyn Marx about his character and conduct “was factually incorrect and significantly exaggerated”.
The school is opposing this.
In response to Sunday Times questions, Webber Wentzel, the law firm acting for the school, said it had advised Pridwin not to respond as the issues would be addressed in an answering affidavit to be filed at the SCA before the end of the month.
In a lengthy affidavit dated July 3, the father labels as “substantially inaccurate and exaggerated” the affidavit evidence of Joubert and another staff member, Chiara Migliore.
The two met the father at his request to explain how the boys were seeded for tennis.
In the transcript of a recording of this meeting, which lasted for 80 minutes and forms part of the court records, Joubert and Migliore first propose that the “seeding list” is drawn up randomly.
The father says he knows from his son’s abilities that the list could not be justified as a properly considered “seeding” of the grade’s pupils.
“My son has been coached by myself since the age of three and is a very competent tennis player. I had determined that it was improbable that the order of the list had occurred arbitrarily or randomly,” he says in his affidavit.
During the meeting Migliore says she and Joubert ranked children who were “more athletic” higher on the list. Joubert adds: “There is no institutional memory from Pridwin’s side of things where we’ve seen these boys play.” After the father’s insistence that they revisit how the list is drawn up, Migliore reveals that they have reviewed it and have taken down the list.
Later during the meeting, Joubert says: “We’ve made a mistake. I own up to it, we’ve made a mistake.”
He says: “Have I made a mistake with the tennis? Yes, I’ll own up about that. I’m head of sport; I’ve got to be accountable. I’m saying sorry.”
Becoming emotional, Joubert tells the father: “I know what it is like to be rejected. I know what it is like to be shouted at and told how useless you are.”
One of Pridwin’s witnesses in the high court case was cricket umpire Kgomotso Mokoele, who initially submitted an affidavit stating the father had threatened him and called him a “fat f**k” after he had given his son out during a match at an Under 9 cricket festival.
But Mokoele has now recanted parts of his original affidavit, denying that the father threatened him or called him a “fat f**k”. He says in a revised affidavit that he initially made the comments about the father “to protect my job”.
“I was conscious that I had called a parent a liar. I endeavoured to protect my position by laying the blame on the parent,” he says.
In his initial affidavit, he claimed that the father “was carrying a cricket bat in a threatening manner” and made threats to kill him after the game.
“I have decided to speak the truth because it is the correct thing to do,” says Mokoele.
In a letter to Webber Wentzel dated May 7, Knowles Husain Lindsay, the law firm acting on behalf of the parents, said its clients believed that certain evidence tendered by the school and Marx was “false”.
Have I made a mistake with the tennis? Yes, I’ll own up about that. I’m head of sport; I’ve got to be accountable. I’m saying sorry
JP Joubert
Head of sport at Pridwin Preparatory