Cape school stays closed

CONCOURT: PARENTS, GOVERNING BODY, COSATU CONSIDER THEIR OPTIONS

Uitzig Secondary shut due to ‘numerous incidents of vandalism and theft’.

Parents and members of the school governing body (SGB) at Uitzig Secondary School, near Elsies River, in Cape Town have vowed to take up their fight to keep the school open, which would mean going to the Constitutional Court.

The Western Cape department of education on Wednesday welcomed a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) which upholds a 2017 decision to shut down the school.

The news dealt a blow to the SGB, supported by SA Congress of Trade Unions (Cosatu), which has been at loggerheads with the province for the last four years when the closure of the school, was first mooted.

Parent and SGB member Sharon Koeberg said they were shocked to be informed of the ruling through the media.

“If the government can build schools in Khayelitsha then why can’t they come help us? We aren’t going anywhere,” she said.

Koeberg said the SGB would meet to discuss what to do next.

In a statement on Wednesday, education MEC Debbie Schafer said: “The order was handed down on the basis that [Uitzig’s SGB] had no reasonable prospect of success in any appeal and no reason why an appeal should be heard.”

Schafer made the decision in 2017 to shutdown Uitzig Secondary due to “numerous incidents of severe vandalism and theft” of school property and dwindling class sizes.

The SGB took the matter to the Western Cape High Court last year. The court upheld Schafer’s decision to close the school.

The SGB, supported by Cosatu, then filed an urgent application to the SCA to challenge the high court ruling.

Just a week after schools opened in January, the high court granted an urgent application brought by the SGB to force the department to reopen the school, pending the outcome of the SCA ruling.

Schafer said the SCA ruling, made on February 28, was yet