The Gauteng Education Department has admitted to some failings after losing the Constitutional Court case against Hoerskool Overvaal in Vereeninging.
The Afrikaans-medium high school made headlines earlier in the year, when 55 English-medium learners were denied enrolment.
The judgement upheld a prior High Court ruling that said the Department had not given enough consideration on whether English-medium schools in the same feeder zone as Hoerskool Overvaal had enough capacity to admit additional pupils.
Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi says, “I mean the mere fact that we had an event here today shows there’s been tangible movement. The judgement is very clear, it doesn’t say what we want to do of bringing students together is wrong.
“It says that the timelines we gave people, the failure to recognise that there were people that had open vacancies in their own schools before we brought learners here, we ignored that information. It does not challenge non-racialism per se, it challenges the administrative capabilities and for that we acknowledge, we accept. And I had a discussion with the district to rectify this kind of mistakes,” says Lesufi.
