Cape Town - The Western Cape wants
teacher union Sadtu to pay the legal costs should 17 schools in the province
lose their legal battle to stay open.
This emerged in the Western Cape High
Court on Tuesday, where the 17 School Governing Bodies (SGBs) were asking for a
review of Education MEC Donald Grant's move to close the schools.
Eduard Fagan, for Grant and his
department, told the court the matter was clearly politically motivated.
He cited the presence of ANC Western
Cape chairperson Marius Fransman during proceedings on Monday as proof of this.
The ANC-affiliated SA Democratic
Teachers' Union (Sadtu) is also an applicant in the matter.
Fagan said the province would not be
seeking costs from the SGBs, but Sadtu should be made to pay costs because of
the political nature of the case.
Fagan on Tuesday concluded his arguments
in court, insisting the process leading to the decision to close the schools
was legally and procedurally fair.
He said the Schools Act did not compel
his client to consult affected communities.
The provincial department did, however,
give SGBs an opportunity, during public hearings last year, to make
representations to Grant on his intention to close schools.
Fagan argued Grant supplied the schools
with sufficient reasons for their closure before they were asked to make
representations.
Empowered by the Act
The Western Cape education department is
in agreement with a minority judgment by Judge Dennis Davis last year.
In the minority judgment, Davis said
after "anxious reflection" he would only have made an order in the
case of two schools.
He found Grant had complied with the
Schools Act in allowing representations, and that there was no legal basis for
importing the concept "meaningful engagement" into the wording of
that section.
The act ultimately empowered Grant to
make the final decision on school closures, he said.
His two colleagues, Siraj Desai and
Elizabeth Baartman, did not agree and granted the schools an urgent interdict
halting the closures, pending the outcome of a final review process.
This final review process is now
underway.
