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An independent schools association has launched another court bid to force KwaZulu-Natals education department to pay low-fee school subsidies outstanding since 2009.
Durban – South Africa’s independent schools’ association has launched another court bid to force KwaZulu-Natal’s education department to pay low-fee school subsidies outstanding since 2009 and enforce proper future payment following a Constitutional Court ruling last week.
Jane Hofmeyr, head of the Independent Schools Association of South Africa (Isasa), told The Mercury on Sunday a fresh case was under way after 119 low- and mid-fee KwaZulu-Natal schools were awarded only part of unpaid departmental subsidies because Justice Edwin Cameron ruled the matter was not argued in the “proper legal form” and the court’s ruling applied only to subsidies owed until April 2009 in terms of a 2008 notice.
He said the National Alliance of Independent Schools Association (Naisa) had incorrectly charged that the subsidies were not paid as a contract under private law, rather than administrative justice under public law.
In the South African Schools Act, the provincial departments of education are obliged to subsidise private schools charging fees lower than R28 000 per year.
The subsidy is calculated at 60 percent of the provincial average cost per pupil per year, which, in KwaZulu-Natal, is about R11 000 a year.
Naisa argued that the “life chances” of about 130 000 pupils in 630 independent schools across the country had been affected by payments which were either late, incorrect, arbitrarily slashed or did not materialise at all.
Isasa has more than 200 member schools in the province, 25 of which meet the subsidy requirement. Some of these schools charge less than R10 000 per year in fees.
KwaZulu-Natal department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi refused to comment when approached by The Mercury on Friday, but the department’s annual performance plan said it was “impossible” to pay the subsidies because of “overall budget pressures”.
Hofmeyr said they would argue, in accordance with Justice Cameron’s ruling, that under public law the government could not retroactively reduce subsidies which it was bound by an “enforceable promise” to pay.
“Underpayment for years has made it difficult for low-fee schools, with their limited resources, to provide quality education to disadvantaged communities. Their financial sustainability is under severe threat. Sometimes they… are unable to pay teachers’ salaries, so the principals take out personal loans. In most cases the schools have no option but to raise their fees, which they do not want to do, given the school communities they serve,” she said.
Attorney Sivi Pather said the association’s court battle, which began in 2010, was brought in terms of a contract under private law because of financial constraints. “We acted pro bono. We were running out of steam. That’s why we called for the urgent hearing. We had to get a ruling for the schools.” – The Mercury
* For the record: In the above story, The Mercury incorrectly reported that the Independent Schools Association of South Africa (Isasa) had “launched another court bid to force KwaZulu-Natal’s education department to pay low-fee school subsidies outstanding since 2009…”
Isasa head Jane Hofmeyr said the body had not launched court action but was “seriously considering a new legal action” and had been “gathering all the key information about the processes and payments |of the 2013 subsidies to independent schools by the provincial departments of Education in preparation for such a case should we decide to launch it”.
Also, the legal action in the Constitutional Court against the KZN Department of Education was in fact led by the KZN Joint Liaison Committee rather than the National Alliance of Independent School Associations (Naisa).
The errors are regretted.
