By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Pretoria High School for Girls’ School Governing Body (SGB) has requested that the judge presiding over their case against the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) to recuse himself.
The SGB’s legal representatives are concerned that Judge Mandlenkosi Motha might not handle the matter fairly.
Judge Motha is accused of “bias” over his utterance linked to some of aspects of the case.
He had slammed the handling of the “racism” scandal that gripped Pretoria High School for Girls (PHSG) earlier this year on all fronts.
The matter has been temporarily struck off the roll in the High Court in Pretoria.
Judge Motha found that the SGB application was not urgent.
He said a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application was a route to be considered in obtaining the documents. However, Motha remarked that “logic dictates that the report should be provided to the relevant parties”.
PAIA is a law allowing individuals to access information held by public and private bodies, in promoting transparency and accountability, fostering a culture of openness and democracy and to enable individuals to access information necessary to exercise of their rights.
The SGB wanted the court to compel Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane and the department to release the investigative report into alleged racism at the school after 12 learners were suspended in July this year on allegations of racism linked to their involvement in a controversial WhatsApp group.
The SGB is demanding that the findings of the investigation by Madladlamba Attorneys be released immediately.
On 4 November, the GDE released a summary of the investigators’ report. One of the findings was that some white teachers at the school reportedly did not greet their black colleagues, citing uncertainty about whether they were educators or cleaners. The SGB dismissed this as “unproven and unprovable”.
According to the investigators, this allegation was confirmed by the school’s suspended principal Phillipa Erasmus, who reportedly described the issue as one of her biggest frustrations. Erasmus also spoke of the ongoing ill-treatment of the administration staff by certain educators, claimed the investigators.
The report recommended that Erasmus, along with the deputy principal responsible for discipline, two educators, the estate manager and the HR manager be charged with misconduct.
Charles Mdladlamba, the director of Mdladlamba Attorneys and the lead attorney in the investigation, said the GDE should consider removing the chairperson of the SGB, citing allegations of interference with the MEC’s legislative powers.
The SGB also seeks to interdict the GDE from taking any further action based on the report until it is reviewed and potentially set aside, and to challenge the MEC’s decision to commission the report and the report itself, on the grounds that they are irregular and irrational.
In October, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation questioned the handling of the racism storm at school.
Former president Mbeki revealed that he had personally inspected the contents of the WhatsApp conversations and failed to find any evidence of racism.
“We ourselves have also closely studied the comments made by the chat group, independently to determine whether these constituted manifestations of racism and hate speech,” Mbeki said in a letter to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Chiloane.