FEDSAS v Member of the Executive Council and Head of Department, Gauteng Department of Education (CCT 209/15)
In FEDSAS v Member of the Executive Council, Gauteng Department of Education, FEDSAS is appealing a judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) which affirms the validity of certain amendments made to the Gauteng Regulations for Admission of Learners to Public Schools.
The EELC is representing Equal Education (EE), which has made submissions as a friend of the court (amicus curiae).
EE submits that the Regulations, when determining feeder zones for entry phase school admissions, should not only focus on the proximity of a learner to the school. Such an approach discriminates against poor black learners living far from better resourced schools and facing special injustice, a legacy of colonialism and Apartheid. EE also submits that the MEC, HOD, and department officials must deal with the question of school capacity limits with reference to the Regulations Relating to Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure, until norms and standards on school capacity are published.
The matter was heard by the Constitutional Court on 5 May 2016. Finding that EE’s submissions on the entrenchment of racial inequality may have traction, then Deputy Chief Justice Moseneke, in his last judgment at the Court, ordered that school feeder zones must account for more than simply geographic proximity and that the MEC must finalise the framework within 12 months of the judgment.
View the relevant court documents below:
- View the Founding Affidavit to the High Court
- View Replying Affidavit
- View Answering Affidavit
- View Application for leave to appeal
- View Applicants’ replying affidavit
- View Answering Affidavit
- View Founding Affidavit to the Constitutional Court
- View Equal Education’s submissions to the Constitutional Court
- View the Constitutional Court’s Judgment on Feeder Zones
