A SPECIAL needs school in Grahamstown has asked the Grahamstown High Court to declare national and provincial education bosses in contempt of court.
The governing body of Amasango Career School has, in desperation, been forced to take the action after the provincial and national Education Departments failed to meet a single requirement of a court order issued in the school’s favour in March last year.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, Eastern Cape Education MEC Mandla Makupula, and his superintendent-general Modidima Mannya could face jail time if found to be in contempt of court.
Their departments consented to a court order in terms of which they were given until October 2010 to build temporary facilities for the school, including six prefabricated classrooms, some toilets and a small temporary library.
The facilities were meant to assist the school to continue functioning pending the building of a new school, which is currently housed in cramped, disused old railway buildings on a narrow gravel plot next to the railway line in Grahamstown.
The department is a year late and more than a dime short on meeting these obligations despite numerous reminders, letters and meetings, says the Grahamstown-based Legal Resources Centre (LRC), which is acting on behalf the school.
Amasango school governing body members Colley Draai and Yalekile Ngeju said in an affidavit in support of the contempt application that the departments had also failed to meet the requirements of a second court order.
In August last year, the high court gave the department two months to develop a reasonable plan to provide permanent school facilities for Amasango.
It was then supposed to immediately implement the plan and build the school. The department was also ordered to provide a written report to the court every three months on progress made towards meeting its orders. But Draai and Ngeju say the department has not provided the temporary facilities, has not developed a plan for permanent facilities and has not filed a report with the court since March this year.
They have asked that the court declare Motshekga, Makupula and Mannya in contempt of court for not complying with the court orders.
They have also asked the court to jail them if they do not comply within 10 days of being declared in contempt of court.
The school started operations in 1995 in two old shipping containers. Despite its inferior facilities, it has a long history of successfully rehabilitating street children, with many former learners returning to mainstream high schools and even, in some cases, going on to university.
Draai and Ngeju say the school has been extraordinarily respectful of, and patient with, the departments.
They said the school had resorted to the contempt proceedings “most reluctantly. It was deeply anxious (and remains so) that adopting the litigious route would (and will) undermine its relationship with the respondents, which affects all aspects of the school”.
