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<h1 class="gmail-headline__title">Equal Education To Apply To Join Court Bid Against Hoërskool Overvaal</h1>
<h2 class="gmail-headline__subtitle">Discipline the official who made
unfair demands about the school, but still targets Overvaal's language
policy, say education activists.</h2></div><div class="gmail-author-byline">
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/author/queenin-masuabi" class="gmail-bn-author-image gmail-bn-clickable">
<div class="gmail-author-card__headshot" style="background-image:url("http://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?quality=80\000026thumbnail=40%2C40\000026image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.blogcdn.com%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.co.za%2Fmedia%2F2017%2F11%2Fqueenin.jpg\000026client=cbc79c14efcebee57402\000026signature=ed844a6a1d8d8acdba646a2dd269816bb728d669")"></div><span class="gmail-author-card__details-container"></span></a><a class="gmail-author-card__details__name" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/author/queenin-masuabi"><span class="gmail-author-card__details__name">By Queenin Masuabi
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A demonstrator lights a tyre during protests outside Hoërskool Overvaal on January 17.
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<p>Equal Education secretary-general Tshepo
Motsepe said the organisation will be joining the Gauteng department of
education in its appeal against the Pretoria High Court ruling earlier
this month concerning Hoërskool Overvaal.</p>
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<p>Judge Bill Prinsloo ruled that the Afrikaans-medium school would not
have to accommodate English-speaking pupils, because it did not have the
resources.</p>
<p>"I have given an instruction to our lawyers to find out if we can
join the case as friends of the court, if it proceeds either to the SCA
or the Constitutional Court. We feel the judge in the case made some
very problematic statements," Motsepe said.</p>
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<p>Yesterday, the department said it would take the case to the Constitutional Court</p>
<blockquote class="gmail-pull-quote">"The facts of the case in relation to the
district director are quite damning. In my view, the district director
should have been fired – and I hope she is facing some music"<br>
– Judge Bill Prinsloo</blockquote>
<p>Motsepe claims that a district official was the main reason why the
department lost the case. Sedibeng East district director Dorah Moloi
was ajudged to have not been fair in ordering Overvaal to accept the
English-speaking learners.</p>
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<p>For this reason, Moloi was accused of defeating the ends of justice,
and Judge Prinsloo suggested her "senior peers investigate her conduct".</p>
<p>"The facts of the case in relation to the district director are quite
damning. In my view the district director should have been fired – and I
hope she is facing some music," Prinsloo said. "The district director
clearly lied and went as far as intimidating people in order to cover
her tracks."</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2018/01/31/protests-to-continue-at-hoerskool-overvaal_a_23348642/?utm_hp_ref=za-news" target="_blank">Read: Protests To Continue at Hoërskool Overvaal</a></p>
<p>Equal Education's Motsepe suggested that the department admit the
official was wrong, but still fight to overturn the language policy at
the school.</p>
<p>"The constitutionality of the case is very vital, and I think it
would be a mistake for the department not to proceed with this matter. I
think there is definitely a case to be made [about] single-medium
schools and the reality in South Africa [of] overcrowded classrooms and
the shortage of resources," Motsepe said.</p>
<p>Multiple protests by political parties, unions and community members
have continued outside the school since the High Court ruling.</p></div></div></article></div></div></div></div>
- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="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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