'Bully' school officials slammed

A school's battle against a pupil's irregular admission could lead to a flood of court challenges.

At least 30 other overcrowded Gauteng schools are known to have been bulldozed into admitting pupils by the province's Department of Education.

On February 8 the department used its authority to admit a six-year-old pupil to Rivonia Primary , prompting the governing body to go to the High Court in Johannesburg.

The governing body also wants the education MEC, Barbara Creecy, and her officials to be interdicted from "unlawfully" interfering with the governance of the school.

The deputy chairman of Rivonia primary's governing body, Disebo Moephuli, said in an untested affidavit that the department had acted in "an extremely high-handed manner".

Quoting the schools act, Moephuli said in court papers that the admission policy of a public school was determined by that school's governing body.

Admissions for 2011 to Rivonia primary opened on July 13, and by the time the pupil's mother - a businesswoman from Sunninghill - handed in a partially completed form on July 21, the school had already received 139 applications

When told that her child was 140th on the waiting list, the mother became aggressive, Moephuli said.

"She was angry and shouted at (principal) Carol Drysdale. She wanted to know why she was unwilling to admit a black child to the school."

The school has 388 black pupils, including 52 in grade one.

Moephuli said the woman used her influence to circumvent the school's policy, with the head of the Department of Education, Boy Ngobeni, ordering Rivonia primary to admit the child.

The woman brought her daughter to the school on February 7, but was told to leave. The next day she returned with two education officials, one of whom "marched" the pupil to the nearest classroom and "deposited her without consultation or the consent of the governing body", Moephuli said in his affidavit.

Roger Millson, the Governing Body Foundation's executive officer for the five inland provinces, said at least 30 Gauteng schools had "found themselves under immense pressure by departmental officials to admit pupils".

A spokesman for the department said the matter was sub judice, but that answering papers would be lodged by March 23.