Legal Articles and Guides

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).

UCT engineering student Ghalib van der Ross has given the institution a lesson over allegations that he plagiarised his ‘electricity supply expansion’ assignment, says a TimesLIVE report. Van der Ross was among 15 final-year students who were hauled before the university’s disciplinary tribunal after their lecturer suspected them of copying last year. The university refused to allow him to bring a lawyer to the hearing.

The SCA has ruled that JSE-listed print and manufacturing company Novus must continue to print and distribute millions of workbooks to 24 000 public schools until March 2020, although the awarding of the estimated R3bn contract was deemed constitutionally invalid, says a Business Day report.

Howick resident Agatha Myburg (27) is claiming over R2.5m in damages from Damelin for not being able to find a job and the ‘mental anguish’ it’s causing her, says a report in The Witness. Myburg alleges in papers that came before the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) this week that she enrolled to do ‘Cambridge matric’ at the correspondence college and wrote the exams.

Parents who remove their children from private schools without giving proper notice will lose their deposit. Shaun and Natalie Cochrane learnt this after the National Consumer Tribunal recently rejected their application for an order forcing their children's school, Heronbridge College in Johannesburg, to refund their deposit of R40 808, notes Times Select.

Nine years after he sought justice for his son who was under threat of expulsion from his school, a Durban father is intent on changing the law. Times Select reports while he successfully litigated against The Kenmont School in the south of Durban, he said the school owes him more than R500 000 in legal costs.

Two pupils have been effectively expelled from an independent Johannesburg school after the SCA dismissed an appeal by their parents to have the cancellation of their contracts with the school set aside, notes a TimesLIVE report. Over a period of time‚ from approximately October 2015 until 30 June 2016‚ various incidents allegedly took place involving the children’s father in relation to sporting events at Pridwin Preparatory School‚ and at other schools‚ which caused disruption.

Unisa has successfully approached the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) for an urgent interdict against personnel in a bid to continue final exams for hundreds of thousands of students, Beeld reports. Unisa says in court papers the exams are being threatened by employees under the urging of Mpho Moses Morolane and Malebo Charline Nkoane on the Muckleneuk campus.

Varsity College has approached the courts to have wording in the Attorneys Act and the Legal Practice Act declared unconstitutional, says a report in The Mercury. This follows an impasse with the KZN Law Society over the body’s refusal to have the institution’s LLB graduates admitted for articles. The institution has filed a Rule 16A notice with the High Court asking that it declare the use of the word ‘university’ in both Acts unconstitutional.

The four-year LLB degree – offered for the first time by Varsity College this year – is under threat, says a Times Select report. At least 10 parents of students doing the degree at its three campuses in KZN have threatened legal action. One has already served summons demanding a repayment of fees because of ‘misrepresentations and negligence’.

Varsity College has found itself in a quagmire because the KZN Law Society refuses to allow its LLB students to register to serve their articles, says a report in The Witness. The college contends it has all the relevant accreditation to offer the degree but the society maintains that ‘only a university’ may do so. This follows amendments to relevant legislation last September which no longer classifies Varsity College as a university.

The governing body of Grey College in Bloemfontein was on the receiving end of a severe hiding in the Free State High Court this week in connection with its attempt to curtail the powers of its principal, notes a Volksblad report. Acting Judge-President Cagney Musi declared the governing body had acted unfairly and unlawfully during a meeting at which it was decided that Deon Scheepers should be relieved of all ‘delegated’ powers and in future focus only on academic matters at the school.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has lost his battle to force Hoërskool Overvaal‚ an Afrikaans medium school‚ to take 55 English-speaking pupils. In a unanimous judgment‚ the Constitutional Court dismissed Lesufi’s appeal bid and backed the decision made by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), says a BusinessLIVE report.

A ’significant milestone’ is how the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) described the ruling by the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho), which found it was unconstitutional and invalid for the government to delay fixing poor and unsafe school infrastructure. The commission said inadequate school facilities had a debilitating impact on pupils and staff and hampered the delivery of proper education.

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.