A Cape High Court judge has upheld a bid by the governing body of Cape Town’s Mikro Primary School to preserve its Afrikaans-only status.
However, the matter could end up in the Constitutional Court if the Western Cape education department has its way.
The department ordered the school to create a special English-medium grade-one class this year, to accommodate pupils who allegedly could not be placed elsewhere in the Kuils River area.
But Judge Wilfred Thring said in his ruling on Friday that Western Cape education minister Cameron Dugmore and his department should bear a ”heavy burden of opprobrium” for their conduct.
He said the conduct of department officials constituted ”unlawful interference” in the management of the school, and that they had acted as if the school’s language policy did not exist.
Their claim that there was no room at a parallel-medium school in the area, De Kuilen, was false.
He ordered that the department place the 21 children involved at another school as soon as reasonably practicable, but that they have to be out of Mikro by the end of this year at the latest.
He also issued a restraining order to prevent Dugmore and the department from trying to place any more English-medium pupils at the school, and ordered them to pay the costs of the application.
Department to seek leave to appeal
Dugmore said in reaction the department will seek leave to appeal the judgement directly to the Constitutional Court or, failing that, to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
”We believe there are fundamental constitutional principles at stake here,” he said.
”On the one hand [there is] the Schools Act, which indicates that the governing body can determine language policy; on the other hand, the constitutional imperative that learners have the right to education in the language of their choice.
”And clearly this is a matter which the Constitutional Court needs to decide upon.”
He said some people have interpreted the department’s conduct as ”against Afrikaans”.
However, there are four Afrikaans classes in grade one at Mikro, and only 21 learners receiving instruction in English.
”That in no way undermines mother-tongue education,” he said.
The chairperson of Mikro’s school governing body, Erhard Wolf, said in reaction to the judgement: ”We are extremely happy about it and we are also grateful it’s now behind us.”
Told that the department intends to seek leave to appeal, he said: ”It is unfortunate, but it’s their full right to be able to follow the process. We haven’t heard anything formally.”
He said that before the judgement was delivered, he and Dugmore had met and agreed to put aside their differences and work together.
”We know we can’t stand in isolation, and so too does the education department. We have to work as a team,” he said. — Sapa