Girls school’s SGB to take department to court
The school governing body (SGB) says the probe went beyond the scope and was filled with sensationalised and unfounded statements.
The Pretoria High School for Girls’s (PHGS) school governing body (SGB) has recently announced its intention to take legal action against the Department of Basic Education (DBE) over the racism probe.
This comes after the department issued a summarised version of its independent inquest into the allegations of racism at the school made earlier this year.
In July, 12 matric learners were suspended for allegedly making racist remarks in a “Whites-only” WhatsApp group, which prompted the DBE to suspend the principal, Phillipa Erasmus and her deputy, Doret Schoombie. Both have since been reinstated.
On November 18, the school SGB announced that it began taking legal action against the department over the investigation.
The court proceedings are aimed at the following:
– To compel production by the MEC of the report of Madladlamba Attorneys relating to the school which the MEC has refused to release to the school.
– To interdict the GDE from taking any steps under the report, pending its review and setting aside.
– To review and set aside, as irregular and irrational, both the MEC’s decision to commission the report and the report findings.
“None of this should have happened. The school and its SGB shouldn’t be in this adversarial relationship with the department. The Thabo Mbeki Foundation in its aforementioned letter called on the MEC and the GDE to do the right and not the wrong thing, and it emphasised the importance of teaching, of schools and proper order in the school,” the statement read.
The SGB said the independent report was unfounded and that the school has been under severe pressure due to this scandal hence their legal action.
“PHSG has been treated shamefully, and South Africa and education have suffered. The principal and staff of PHSG are prohibited by the GDE from speaking up. Only the school’s SGB may speak for it. So it has. It is to right these wrongs that PHSG’s SGB has felt compelled to launch the application,” the statement concluded.
Department spokesperson Steve Mabona told Rekord the department had no further comment on this matter at the time of publishing.
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
