Cape Town – The anxiety, tension and fear for their future which had consumed Uitzig Senior Secondary pupils for months dissipated slightly yesterday when they were able to walk into their classrooms for the first time this year.
The school was reopened after the Western Cape High Court suspended Education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s decision to close it until the school governing body’s application for leave to appeal was heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). By morning, parents had joined pupils at the school in a show of support.
Many of them had the same reason for their resistance to the closure: attending the school, the only high school in the area, was the only way pupils stood a chance of getting out of the neighbourhood.
Fighting for the school to stay open meant that pupils stood a chance of making a better life for themselves, parents said.
Schäfer had decided to close the school after considering, among other things, dwindling pupil numbers and vandalism.
The matter was challenged in court and towards the end of last year the Western Cape High Court ruled in Schäfer’s favour.
The court also dismissed an application brought last year by the governing body challenging Schäfer’s decision.
Challenging that decision, attorney Jerald Andrews filed a notice of motion in the SCA for leave to appeal against the high court’s finding.
Acting Judge Thabani Masuku quoted the Superior Court Act in his judgment on Wednesday, which read: “Subject to subsections (2) and (3), and unless exceptional circumstances order otherwise, the operation and execution of a decision which is the subject of an application for leave to appeal, or of an appeal, is suspended pending the decision of the application or appeal.”
Yesterday, Cosatu was also at the school as they had been vocal and proactive in helping to keep the school open.
The federation’s provincial secretary, Malvern de Bruyn, said they were elated at the judgment and happy to see pupils at the school.
Cosatu members had formed a team which would closely follow the court case and provide support to the school, De Bruyn said.
“I attended this school and it is sad to see the way it has turned out. Closing the school will have dire consequences for those living in the area,” De Bruyn said.
Doris Daniels’s grandchild is in Grade 10 at the school. She said parents felt strongly that the department should not shut the school.
Daniels said it could be dangerous for pupils, given travel distances, to attend another school.
“We are relieved and happy with the decision to open the school again. We parents will be here to show our support,” Daniels said.
Being handed a sheet of paper in class one day and told they had to, right there and then, “tick the box of the other school they were going to attend” was stressful to say the least, said Uitzig Senior Secondary pupils and friends Feran Swawel and Mecaylin Fillis.
At the back of their minds, the two friends knew their school could be closed at any moment and, coupled with the stress of an ongoing court fight between Schäfer and their parents, morale ran low.
Swawel, 20, and Fillis, 19, both failed the 2018 matric exams, but they are not giving up that easily. Both are going to rewrite in June and are excited at the prospect of passing as they have big plans for their future.
“I received a bursary from the school to study and I’m working to become a counselling manager,” Swawel said.
Fillis said she dreamed of owning her own business and upskilling those in her community.
“I want to open my own hair salon and give people quality service. I also want to teach others how to do hair,” said Fillis.
The friends said they were determined to complete their schooling and to do so at Uitzig Senior Secondary, so that they could give their families a better life.
Support they had received from teachers at the school had contributed to their decision to rewrite, they said.
“It was difficult to concentrate as we were confused about what was going to happen - it affected our studies,” Swawel said.
“We did miss school on some days in the beginning, because of the stress and confusion,” Fillis added.
God has been central in her life during her time of trouble, Swawel said, as she prays daily for answers and help.
“On some of the days that I did not feel like not going to school, I had faith in God,” she said.