Legal Articles and Guides

A group of parents and students is planning to take legal action against the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) if it does not allow students to complete their 2016 academic year. According to a News24 report, the Concerned Association of Parents and Others for Tertiary Education at Universities was formed at a special meeting at the German Club in Port Elizabeth mid-week.

Unisa‚ the latest higher education institution to be hit by disruptions‚ has obtained a court order barring protesting students from disrupting academic activities, notes a TimesLIVE report. Spokesperson Martin Ramotshela said the order restraining protesters from calling‚ supporting‚ encouraging or inciting unlawful behaviour‚ violence‚ the causing of damage to property and from intimidating‚ threatening or harming any employees‚ students‚ service providers or visitors present on Unisa campuses or premises including examination centres.

If one happens to be a student protester with some access to legal representation, one enjoys immense protection against potential authoritarian abuse by the state because of the Constitution, says Pierre de Vos. In an analysis on his Constitutionally Speaking blog, he points out that Section 17 of the Bill of Rights states that ‘everyone has the right, peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions’.

A City Press report points out that while unrest is brewing again on the country"s campuses over tuition fees, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe was vague about the way forward when briefing the media yesterday after last week"s extended Cabinet lekgotla. City Press reported on Sunday that President Jacob Zuma had instructed Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to find the money to accommodate a second consecutive 0% student fee increase this year.

With more conflict over university fees on the horizon, Rapport says not a single student has been successfully prosecuted for the damages of more than R460m caused to universities in the first round of #FeesMustFall protests. Although a handful of universities started disciplinary proceedings, no criminal prosecution is under way for arsonists and no prosecutions for other crimes such as malicious damage to property have been concluded.

The separation of powers was again in the spotlight during a successful appeal against a judgment involving four educational centres in the Western Cape. A News24 report notes the initial court action was launched to protest the closing of the four centres in Ottery, Die Bult, Wellington and Eureka. The applicants, Justice Alliance of SA and the governing body of the Ottery Youth Care and Education Centre, argued that these changes were unconstitutional and unlawful.

The education authorities and teacher union Sadtu are to face a series of court challenges from aggrieved teachers and principals who believe they are victims of a jobs-for-cash scam run by corrupt department officials in cahoots with their union counterparts, says a City Press report. Bo Dlamini, the former principal of Durban"s Brettonwood High School, has served a letter of demand for R15m on the department and Sadtu over his dismissal in 2009, which he believes was the result of a campaign by the union to replace him.