The head of sport at a private school is said to have made a grovelling apology to a father of one of the pupils after admitting he ranked boys for tennis without having watched them play. A Sunday Times report notes 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. 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 SCA, and will do so in September. The father has now applied for leave to submit further evidence to the SCA, arguing that evidence placed before the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) by Pridwin principal Selwyn Marx about his character and conduct ‘was factually incorrect and significantly exaggerated’.

The school is opposing this.

Webber Wentzel, the law firm acting for the school, reportedly said it had advised Pridwin not to respond as the issues would be addressed in an affidavit to be filed at the SCA.

In a letter to Webber Wentzel, Knowles Husain Lindsay, the law firm acting on behalf of the parents, said its clients believed certain evidence tendered by the school and Marx was ‘false’.

Full Sunday Times report (subscription needed)