North West education MEC Sello Lehari is on Wednesday expected to visit the school where a teacher was suspended over a racial row.
The Schweizer-Reneke teacher and trade union Solidarity have announced plans to pursue legal action against the provincial education department.
Lehari's spokesperson, Freddy Sepeng, told TimesLIVE that Lehari would respond to their allegations, including that the department had acted incorrectly in suspending the teacher.
Elana Barkhuizen, who found herself embroiled in an uproar after a picture, showing black learners seated separately from their white Grade R classmates at Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke, came out guns blazing on Tuesday in defence of her name and the children she teaches.
Fighting back tears as she read out a statement in Pretoria on Tuesday, Barkhuizen told a media conference that she was a "good teacher".
"People who know me say I am a good teacher. People who know me fight to have their children in my class. People who know me know that I put my whole heart into my work for my learners," she said.
The photographed children were in the class of a fellow teacher, with Barkhuizen taking the photographs for a parent-teacher WhatsApp group.
As Barkhuizen was introduced by Solidarity, the group described her as a teacher who was dedicated to her learners, even bringing in her domestic worker to assist Tswana-speaking learners in her class on their first day of school, who did not understand Afrikaans or English.
Solidarity is set to serve court papers before the end of the week over the "unlawful" suspension of the Schweizer-Reneke teacher.
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