<div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><header><h1>Court fight after pupils barred from Vereeniging school</h1><p class="gmail-meta"><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news">News</a><span> / </span><span>10 January 2018, 06:28am</span><span> / </span><span><strong>Goitsemang Tlhab</strong></span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Fpretoria-news%2Fnews%2Fcourt-fight-after-pupils-barred-from-vereeniging-school-12670453" title="Share on Facebook"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/facebook-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Share on Facebook" id="gmail-article-facebook-share"></a></p><div><div class="gmail-social-icons"><ul><li><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=IOL&text=Court%20fight%20after%20pupils%20barred%20from%20Vereeniging%20school&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Fpretoria-news%2Fnews%2Fcourt-fight-after-pupils-barred-from-vereeniging-school-12670453" title="Share on Twitter"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/twitter-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Share on Twitter" id="gmail-article-twitter-share"></a></li><li><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&title=Court%20fight%20after%20pupils%20barred%20from%20Vereeniging%20school&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Fpretoria-news%2Fnews%2Fcourt-fight-after-pupils-barred-from-vereeniging-school-12670453" title="Share on LinkedIn"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/linkedin-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Share on LinkedIn" id="gmail-article-linkedin-share"></a></li><li><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/court-fight-after-pupils-barred-from-vereeniging-school-12670453#email-share" class="gmail-show-popup" title="Share via Email"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/email-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Tell a Friend" id="gmail-article-email-share"></a></li></ul></div></div></header><figure><div class="gmail-sixteen-nine"><img class="gmail-imgLandScape" src="https://image.iol.co.za/image/1/process/620x349?source=https://inm-baobab-prod-eu-west-1.s3.amazonaws.com/public/inm/media/image/100156969.JPG" alt="" title="Thloriso Mofokeng speaking in the high court to parents who want their children admitted to Hoërskool Overvaal. Picture: Bongani Shilulbane/ANA"></div><figcaption><span class="gmail-imageCaption">Thloriso
Mofokeng speaking in the high court to parents who want their children
admitted to Hoërskool Overvaal. Picture: Bongani Shilulbane/ANA</span></figcaption></figure>Pretoria
- Enough is enough. Our children cannot wake up at 4am just because the
only high school in their area refuses to transform.
<p>This was said at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, which was
filled with parents from Vereeniging and surrounding areas, who had
came to support the Department of Education, after it was taken to court
by a school in the area.</p>
<p>Hoërskool Overvaal hauled the department before court
through an urgent application to bar it from forcing the school to
accept an additional 55 pupils from the area.</p>
<p>Tlhoriso Mofokeng, chairperson of the Overvaal
Transformation Committee, said parents from the area had been battling
to get their children accepted into the school since 1992.</p>
<p>Mofokeng said parents started calling on the department to
intervene and take heed of the battle they were facing with the school.</p>
<p>He said it was completely unfair to parents and children who
had to travel more than 15km to neighbouring areas to attend school.</p>
<p>This was because the only high school in the area refused to become inclusive.</p>
<p><b>Read: <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/hoerskool-overvaal-all-we-asked-for-was-dual-medium-12662015">Hoërskool OverVaal: 'All we asked for was dual-medium'</a></b></p>
<p>“It is the only high school in the area covering six suburbs. </p>
<p>"You will find that your child will have to start preparing
themselves at 4am while schools only start at 7.45am,” Mofokeng said.</p>
<p>He added: “We don’t want to change the school just because we want blacks there.</p>
<p>"We want our children to be afforded the opportunity to
learn like everyone else in this country. Why should we have to fork out
an additional R6000 with a school right there?”</p>
<p>Judge Bill Prinsloo said the school lodged the application
on December 20, which afforded the department the opportunity to respond
by January 4.</p>
<p>Judge Prinsloo said despite a communication gap which resulted in the department only receiving
the communication nine days later, it still managed to respond using the online system on January 2.</p>
<p>Advocate Albert Lamey, representing the school, requested
the matter be stood down for one day to allow for all representatives
and Judge Prinsloo to consider the contents of the lengthy submissions
made by the school.</p>
<p>Advocate Kumbira Toma, the department's representative, requested four days.</p>
<p>But Judge Prinsloo insisted the matter be resolved as speedily as possible as schools were due to open on January 17.</p>
<p>Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the postponement was fair as a late affidavit had been filed by the school.</p>
<figure><font size="2"><b><img class="gmail-baobab-embedded-image" alt="Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona" src="https://inm-baobab-prod-eu-west-1.s3.amazonaws.com/public/inm/media/image/100156970.JPG"></b></font><figcaption><font size="2"><b>Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona at the Gauteng High Court , Pretoria. Picture: Bongani Shilulbane/ANA</b></font></figcaption></figure>
<p>Mabona said however it was quite sad that schools had to
resort to taking the department to court when the department had proof
that they had space.</p>
<p>He said: “We want access to education for all. </p>
<p>"We offered to give them an educator, learner material and
as such we don’t understand the resistance to accommodate other
learners. </p>
<p>"All we asked for was dual-medium,” Mabona said.</p>
<p>Moreover, he added, the School Governing Body (SGB) had gone
over and their responsibility, involving themselves in the process of
admission of pupils.</p>
<p>Even though the school allegedly has 22 classrooms and the capacity to accommodate 840 pupils, it had capped the number at 621.</p>
<p>Mabona said even with the additional entrants, the school
would still be well below its maximum capacity, by having 21 classrooms
accommodating 40 pupils per class.</p>
<p>In court papers seen by the Pretoria News, the department
had as of 2016, rejected the school's language policy and engaged the
SGB on taking English pupils from this year.</p>
<p>In addition, the department denied any allegations that it had denied a round table meeting with the SGB.</p>
<p>Assertions that space was available for pupils at Phoenix
High School and General Smuts High School were also denied by the
department.</p>
<p>It noted that Phoenix High School had already taken in 1640 pupils and General Smuts High School had 1000 in all.</p>
<p>The matter was postponed to Thursday.</p><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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