Legal Articles and Guides

A Durban school can no longer suspend pupils from virtual classes for defaulting on school fees. A consent order granted by the Durban High Court ordered the Durban North Primary School to refrain from contravening the Schools Act by excluding pupils from online lessons because their fees were in arrears.

The school governing body (SGB) of Bloemfontein’s Grey College has been dealt a blow by the SCA, the latest instalment in its protracted power struggle with principal Deon Scheepers.

The constitutional injunction that South Africans have the right to education in the language of their choice ‘where that education is reasonably practicable’, is what made the difference between this week’s SCA ruling that the removal of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at Unisa was unlawful and unconstitutional and previous rulings allowing the universities of Stellenbosch and the Free State to switch to tuition in English.

Last week’s Constitutional Court judgment in the Pridwin Preparatory School case took some 13 months to deliver. ‘When judgment day did finally arrive, what was handed down were two voluminous, and important judgments,’ says the anonymous legal expert, ‘Professor Balthazar’.

Government lawyers insist that the state’s decision to ease lockdown restrictions and reopen schools, at a time when SA’s Covid-19 infection rates are increasing, is not unreasonable – particularly given the economic crisis the country is facing, notes Business Day.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that private (or independent) schools may no longer rely on contracts with parents as the basis for kicking children out of school without a fair hearing, notes a GroundUp report.

The Constitutional Court will rule today on the obligations and duties of independent schools, says a report on the IoL site.

Attorney Comfort Ngidi is threatening legal action against KZN’s three top universities if lectures do not resume soon under alert level three, says a News24 report.

Equal Education and two Limpopo schools have taken the Department of Basic Education to court in an attempt to force them to feed all pupils who qualify for the government’s National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP).

Government’s plan to ensure the safety of pupils in schools should be supervised by the courts or an independent body. That’s what One SA Movement, a non-profit organisation, is fighting for in a new court bid, notes a City Press report.

The founder of the One South Africa (OSA) movement, former DA leader Mmusi Maimane, has announced plans to mount a legal challenge to the reopening of schools.

One SA Movement leader Mmusi Maimane said yesterday he will give President Cyril Ramaphosa and the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) 48 hours to outline the reasons why they have decided to reopen schools on 1 June.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has delayed yesterday’s planned announcement about when schools will reopen, saying she still has to determine whether provincial education departments are ready to do so, notes a BusinessLIVE report.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s plan to have principals and other members of school management teams (SMTs) back at school on Monday has suffered a serious setback.

The Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) has struck an urgent application off the roll that sought to prevent the Department of Basic Education from reopening schools under level four of the lockdown.