Legal Articles and Guides

A case about whether a Johannesburg private school can expel two boys (8) for the alleged misconduct of their parents has landed in the Constitutional Court. The Star reports the battle between Pridwin Preparatory School and AB and CB – as the parents are called in affidavits – will be heard in the apex court next month.

A Cape Town public school has been fined for operating unlawfully for 113 years. However, Oakhurst Girls Primary, in Rondebosch, will have no difficulty paying the penalty imposed by a City of Cape Town Planning Tribunal, as it has been set at R0.

A Cape Town school's death knell has been sounded by the SCA, which has reportedly dismissed an application to appeal by the governing body of Uitsig Secondary School, near Elsies River, against Education MEC Debbie Schäfer's 2017 decision to close it.

The suspension of the Sans Souci Girls' High School pupil, who was slapped by a teacher in a video that went viral, was upheld at her disciplinary hearing yesterday, according to a News24 report. Her distraught mother said ‘they (Sans Souci) never cared about my daughter’, and claimed the principal called her aside before the hearing and ‘advised’ her to take her daughter to another school.

The Makangwane School Governing Body (SGB) has been vindicated in the recent judgment delivered by Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) Judge Makgutla Semenya, says Section27’s Zukiswa Pikoli, in an analysis of the judgment on the law centre’s site.

The SA Teacher's Union (SAOU) says it supports the Sans Souci Girls' High School teacher who was caught on video slapping a pupil, notes News24. In a statement yesterday, the union said: ‘The SAOU wishes to emphasise that we support our member and her labour rights,’ the union said in a statement.

The Constitutional Court has come to the aid of an Eastern Cape educator who was eventually dismissed more than five years after misconduct was noted by her employer. According to a Daily Dispatch report, the court set aside an earlier order by the Labour Court and found that the dismissal of Thandiwe Stokwe was procedurally unfair.

The teacher and pupil involved in a fracas in a Cape Town high school classroom have been suspended. According to a TimesLIVE report, a video of the argument at Sans Souci Girls' High School in Newlands that culminated in a shoving match and the teacher slapping the Grade 9 pupil went viral this week.

Here’s a recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision which is of importance and interest to all schools, parents and learners. It deals with a school’s attempt to cancel a parent contract (effectively expelling two young learners) after the parents created a “toxic and intolerable atmosphere” in the school with an eight-month spree of bad behaviour and expletive-rich abuse, mostly at school sporting events.

A teacher from Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke in the North West was suspended yesterday following outrage over a picture she allegedly took of black Grade R pupils in her class being seated separately from their white classmates on their first day of school. The announcement was made by the North West Department of Education during a meeting at the school following demonstrations by community and political groups.

The first day back at school yesterday was marred by a racism incident at a North West school, notes Legalbrief. The province's Education MEC and other politicians will visit the school today to investigated allegations that grade R learners were separated by race.

Fighting to keep open the perilous Uitsig High School in gang-infested Elsies River, former Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich has backed an approach to the SCA to overturn a decision to close it, says a Cape Argus report. Education MEC Debbie Schäfer has been served with papers advising her of the school taking her decision to close the school last year to the SCA.

The Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) has certified a class action which, if it succeeds, could see the department paying out R500m to hundreds of teachers who believe they have been short-changed on their salaries since 2010. But, notes a Daily Dispatch report, this significant legal victory by the Legal Resources Centre acting on behalf of the teachers, may prove hollow unless those teachers opting into the class action can prove their case has not prescribed.

An unrepresented Durban dad has secured a landmark ruling that offers protection to pupils at private schools who haven't paid their school fees, according to a News24 report. In terms of the order, private schools can no longer stop pupils from writing their exams if they haven't paid their school fees, without first following ‘fair procedure’ and taking into account the rights of children.

The Eastern Cape Education Department could be in for a bill of R500m if a new class action against it by disgruntled teachers succeeds, says a Daily Dispatch report. Several teachers are asking the Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) to certify a class action in terms of which they want the department to refund them – and any other teacher that opts in to the class action – the difference in salary between what they would have been paid if they had been employed by the department and the comparatively meagre salaries they did receive from school governing bodies (SGBs).