Disgruntled parents of pupils at a Bhisho primary school are bringing an urgent application in the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) to have the provincial Department of Education ‘unfreeze’ the school bank account, reports DispatchLIVE.

The school’s lack of access to the account, frozen in November last year, means it cannot pay for its nutrition programme, and the pupils have been going hungry.

As a result, teachers at the Bulelani Junior Primary School decided at the start of the academic year that the 260 pupils would end the school day an hour early. And the two food servers, while still employed by the school, have not earned their salary since no food is being provided.

The school governing body says the account was frozen without anyone notifying the school.

The applicants – the school, SGB chair Amzolele Dlelapantsi and a community leader unnamed in the court papers – argue that the department’s top brass admitted to ‘mistakenly’ listing the school as one to be closed due to rationalisation, leading to the account being frozen.

The respondents are Education MEC Fundile Gade, the department’s chief director of management services, and the department’s CFO.

The school, Dlelapantsi and the community leader want the court to issue an order directing the department to remove the school from the list of schools to be closed, to re-open the bank account, and refrain from taking decisions affecting the school without proper consultation with the stakeholders.

The applicant are represented by lawyer Luzuko Tshingana and the matter is to be heard on Wednesday next week.

Full DispatchLIVE report