A TWO-year fight has ended in victory for Austerville Primary on Thursday, 4 October after a lengthy battle to remove the education department’s appointed principal from his post was successful.
The group of Wentworth parents who call themselves ‘education activists’ now await the appointment of Ethne Ogle as principal, who they believe will be appointed soon to head up the school.
The battle began on 16 January 2016, when a group of community leaders called a meeting at school with the Department of Education about what they believed was the irregular appointment of an underqualified principal Akesh Singh.
They claimed Singh’s appointment was based on irregularities and forged documents.
“The school went into lockdown for over almost five weeks, with peaceful protests and sit-ins held in a bid to get the attention of the education department.”
VIDEO: Protest action calls for principal’s fall
“Mrs Ogle’s victory sends a clear message to the Department of Education KZN and that message is corruption and nepotism cannot and must not be tolerated in any form,” said group member Clint Leverton. “This battle went on for almost two whole years and it reached the Durban High Court. The education department came into the fight armed with proof of irregularities and forged documentation which was shown to the state prosecutor acting on behalf of the education department. This was ignored and Judge Kay Pillay ruled in favour of Mrs Ogle, stating the Department of Education had no legal leg to stand on,” he added.
READ: Protest over principal enters 5th week
Many hours were put in, according to Leverton, as they combed through all the documents and pieced together evidence which showed the appointment was based on false information and a host of other interview irregularities. “We would go through these documents a number of times daily. Eventually a whole dossier was compiled and still more evidence was found.
Mrs Ogle deserves to be the next appointed principal of Austerville Primary School, backdated to November 2015. The Department of Education will be doing her an injustice if it does not do this,” he said.
The department of education’s Muzi Mahlambi noted the Sun’s queries about the outcome of the court case but opted not to comment on its behalf.
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