Legal Articles and Guides

The Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) has postponed judgment in the case of Equal Education versus Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to tomorrow, says TimesLIVE. The verdict was supposed to have been handed down yesterday, but Judge Bantubonke Tokota said there were still 'technical' issues that needed to be dealt with.

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.

Afrikaans has to fall as a dominant language at Stellenbosch University because it denies black students access, the institution says in papers filed at the Constitutional Court. The court will be the final arbiter in the battle by Afrikaans lobby groups to have the language re-instated as a parallel medium of instruction at a number of universities.

Bloemfontein's prestigious Grey College Secondary School is a ticking time bomb on race, the chairperson of its governing body says in court papers. According to a Volksblad report, the school governing body (SGB) is opposing an application by headmaster, Deon Scheepers to be re-instated after the SGB decided to strip him of his powers.

The Constitutional Court has agreed to hear oral arguments on 13 September in the case challenging the language policy of Stellenbosch University, Netwerk24 reports.

A battle between the community of Uitzig in Ravensmead and the provincial Education Department over the closure of Uitzig High School is under way in the Western Cape High Court. A Cape Argus report says the community wants the court to force the department to keep the school open after they indicated that it will close due to vandalism.

Free State schools plan to bring a class action suit against the provincial Department of Basic Education to force it to fill vacancies and pay outstanding subsidies. According to a Volksblad report, individual schools have already started litigation in the Free State High Court and their lawyer notified the department that he was awaiting instructions to turn the litigation into a class action.

The Gauteng Education Department will approach the Constitutional Court directly to challenge the Overvaal school decision, MEC Panyaza Lesufi said. The department's legal team met the national Department of Basic Education on Monday and will file an appeal on Friday, Lesufi said.

In what a Cape Argus report calls a victory for single parents, the SCA has overturned a Western Cape High Court decision forcing them to obtain the financial details of their former partners in applying for school fees exemption. The report notes in 2011, single parent Michelle Saffer applied for an exemption at Fish Hoek High School for her daughter, but was refused after the school requested financial statements from her ex-husband which she could not provide.

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has postponed the latest round in the litigation war over SA biggest printing and distribution contract to 22 January. JSE-listed printing giants Caxton and Novus have been fighting over the lucrative deal since April 2016, when the National Treasury cancelled the original tender for school workbooks for the Department of Basic Education, says a Moneyweb report.

The Higher Education Transformation Network has filed a lawsuit in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to interdict the Council for Higher Education from removing Walter Sisulu University’s law degree accreditation – a decision taken in November. The Law Society has been cited as a respondent in the matter, notes a TimesLIVE report. According to the council‚ a review of LLB degree programmes was conducted across the 17 universities offering them.

The University of the Free State’s sole language of instruction is now officially English after the Constitutional Court refused AfriForum leave to appeal a judgment of the SCA that upheld the university's appeal against a High Court order which said the policy decision was unlawful. A BusinessLIVE report notes AfriForum and Solidarity had appealed to the Constitutional Court, after the SCA overturned the judgment of the Free State High Court (Bloemfontein), which reviewed and set aside the language policy adopted by the university senate in 2016.

Tired of having their lives on hold for up to six years, college students are being given the pro bono assistance of a law firm to launch a class action against the state for not ensuring they receive their certificates of graduation, according to a City Press report. Keneilwe Molawa, a former student at Motheo technical and vocational education and training college in Bloemfontein, has been trying to get her civil engineering and building construction national vocational certificate since 2010.

It is not a question of whether the school children will be fed, but of who will feed the school children and derive the profit therefrom.’ The Mercury reports this is how the KZN Department of Education has – in court papers – described the case against its ‘corrupt’ awarding of a R1.4bn tender for the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) in the province.

A geography teacher at St John’s College in Johannesburg – found guilty on three serious charges‚ including racism – has been fired‚ says a TimesLIVE report. This followed a visit to the school last week by Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi‚ who reportedly gave the school an ultimatum until 1pm on Friday to sack the teacher. Welcoming the decision‚ Lesufi said the educator had left the school with immediate effect.