A battle that started more than two years ago on the sports field and went all the way to the Constitutional Court still has parents and the principal of a prestigious private school at an impasse, according to a Sunday Times report. At the centre are two boys who, amid the legal battles and name-calling, still attend Pridwin Preparatory School – unless the SCA says otherwise.

The parents have been embroiled in a protracted legal battle with the school, in Melrose, Johannesburg, since headmaster Selwyn Marx cancelled the parents’ contracts in June 2016, effectively expelling the children, because of the father’s alleged offensive behaviour on the sports field.

The parents went to the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), where Judge Lebogang Modiba granted an interim order in December 2016 allowing the children to remain at the school pending the outcome of the application to set aside the cancellation of the contracts.

In July, Acting Judge Clare Hartford dismissed the parents’ application, but later granted them leave to appeal.

Bypassing the SCA, the parents applied to the Constitutional Court for direct leave to appeal against Hartford’s ruling.

The Constitutional Court dismissed the application, stating: ‘(The court) has concluded that the application for leave to appeal should be dismissed as it is not in the interests of justice to hear it at this stage.’

A hearing in the SCA has now been set down for 12 September.

The report says the situation worsened in January, when there was a heated altercation between the father and Marx at the school, prompting Marx to head to the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg).

On 30 January, Judge David Unterhalter granted an interim order barring the parents from the school or any premises where pupils were involved in sports or other activities unless they were granted permission by Marx.

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