Pretoria - Enough is enough. Our children cannot wake up at 4am just because the only high school in their area refuses to transform.
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.
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.
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.
Mofokeng said parents started calling on the department to intervene and take heed of the battle they were facing with the school.
He said it was completely unfair to parents and children who had to travel more than 15km to neighbouring areas to attend school.
This was because the only high school in the area refused to become inclusive.
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“It is the only high school in the area covering six suburbs.
"You will find that your child will have to start preparing themselves at 4am while schools only start at 7.45am,” Mofokeng said.
He added: “We don’t want to change the school just because we want blacks there.
"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?”
Judge Bill Prinsloo said the school lodged the application on December 20, which afforded the department the opportunity to respond by January 4.
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.
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.
Advocate Kumbira Toma, the department's representative, requested four days.
But Judge Prinsloo insisted the matter be resolved as speedily as possible as schools were due to open on January 17.
Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the postponement was fair as a late affidavit had been filed by the school.
Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona at the Gauteng High Court , Pretoria. Picture: Bongani Shilulbane/ANA
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.
He said: “We want access to education for all.
"We offered to give them an educator, learner material and as such we don’t understand the resistance to accommodate other learners.
"All we asked for was dual-medium,” Mabona said.
Moreover, he added, the School Governing Body (SGB) had gone over and their responsibility, involving themselves in the process of admission of pupils.
Even though the school allegedly has 22 classrooms and the capacity to accommodate 840 pupils, it had capped the number at 621.
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.
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.
In addition, the department denied any allegations that it had denied a round table meeting with the SGB.
Assertions that space was available for pupils at Phoenix High School and General Smuts High School were also denied by the department.
It noted that Phoenix High School had already taken in 1640 pupils and General Smuts High School had 1000 in all.
The matter was postponed to Thursday.