Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court reserved judgment on Tuesday on a matter of 17 schools in the province that are disputing a decision to close them down.
Lawyers for School Governing Bodies (SGBs), Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant and his national counterpart Angie Motshekga concluded argument in a two-day review application.
Earlier, Grant's legal team argued teacher union Sadtu should pay the legal costs should the schools lose their legal battle to stay open.
Eduard Fagan, for Grant and his department, told the court the matter was clearly politically motivated.
He cited the presence of African National Congress Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman during proceedings on Monday as proof of this.
The ANC-affiliated SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) is also an applicant in the matter.
Fagan said the province would not be seeking costs from the SGBs, but Sadtu should be made to pay costs because of the political nature of the case.
Norman Arendse, for the SGBs and Sadtu, conceded “political emotion” was involved, but told the three judges hearing the case they were well trained to ignore this.
Arendse said the court action was led by the Save our Schools campaign. It was made up of Sadtu, the ANC, and non-governmental organisations. He said at no stage had he received instructions from the ANC or Fransman. - Sapa