Staff Reporter
As you walk or drive into Grey College, you are greeted with well-manicured gardens and immaculate buildings that are uniquely tailored to depict the rich culture of the celebrated Bloemfontein school.
But behind those pristine walls is an ugly power struggle that has created turmoil at one of South Africa’s most prestigious schools whose famous alumni includes Olympic gold medallist Ryk Neethling, former Proteas captains Keppler Wessels and Hansie Cronje as well as not less than 46 Springbok players.
Barely a year after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) stopped Grey College’s school governing body (SGB) from demoting a principal they accused of bullying teachers and failing to instil discipline among the learners, the very same SGB has lost another court battle that exposed abuse of office and disregard for laid-down procedure at the school.
In the latest case, 12 members of the SGB that took office in 2018 launched an application asking the Free State High Court to declare unlawful, review and set aside the decision taken on February 28, 2020 by the head of department (HOD) for education in the province, Tsoarelo Malakoane, to terminate their membership of the SGB.
The HOD wielded the axe on the applicants after two investigative reports revealed that the SBG had failed to ensure that the financial and other resources of the school were utilised in a responsible and accountable manner for the full settlement of R100 000 between the school and Amour Shop to the date of the report.
This was despite the out-of-court settlement between the SGB and the owner of Amour Shop and the school having paid R173 490 to Honey Attorneys.
The SGB was also accused breaching the code of conduct for school governing bodies for not referring to district education authorities SGB chairman Henry Buchner’s misconduct for failing to declare his conflict of interest regarding the appointment of his law firm, Honey Attorneys, in the matter involving the “out of court settlement” amount of R100 000 between the school and the Amour Shop owner.
According to the investigative reports, no due processes seemed to have been followed in the appointment of the law firm.
The same governing body was also found to have allowed the recruitment and appointment of at least five individuals without following both the Human Resource Policy of the school and section 20(6) and (8) of the South African Schools Act.
The SGB appointed, without following procedure, Mayrine Geldenhuys and Charlene Hayidakis as administration clerk; one Mrs Mackenzie as marker and administrator for the primary school’s social media; Marelize Vergotti as a social worker; and David Mackenzie as director for water polo.
The school leadership also allegedly changed the job description and made additional payments to one Mrs Van Rooyen without approval of the SGB meeting.
On January 28, 2020, the HOD wrote a letter to the individual SGB members wherein he expressed his intention to suspend or terminate their membership of the Grey College governing body.
In the same letter, Malakoane invited the SGB members to make representations to him within 21 days from the date of the letter on why their respective membership should not be terminated or suspended.
Only Machini Motloung and Advocate Pieterse made representations to him.
On February 7, 2020, the rest of the SGB members – Büchner, N Grobler, F Mokoena, L Koupis, R Coetzer, J Liebenberg, A Hayidakis, J Van Den Berg, P Potgieter, M Matsoho, P Zietsman and G Henning – through their attorneys sent a letter to HOD informing him, among other things, that there were no disciplinary committee proceedings which empowered him to terminate their membership of the governing body.
As a result, they were requesting Malakoane to withdraw or rescind his letter stating his intention to suspend or terminate their membership.
According to records, on the same day the HOD wrote to the SGB members, the SGB wrote a similar letter to the Grey secondary school principal, Scheepers, inviting him to give reasons why steps should not be taken against him for the same transgressions as those levelled against the SGB and more.
On February 13, 2020, the SGB held an urgent meeting where it was decided that all the allegations referred to in the HOD’s letter of 28 January, 2020, be referred to the SGB disciplinary committee.
That decision was taken after the SGB came to the conclusion that the allegations were of a serious nature warranting referral to a disciplinary committee.
On February 26, 2020, the SGB members lodged an application in the High Court challenging the intended termination of their SGB membership.
Two days later, Malakoane proceeded to terminate the applicants’ SGB membership.
The SGB then successfully lodged an urgent application in the High Court to put on hold the HOD’s decision to terminate their membership pending the final adjudication of an application by the applicants for the review and setting aside of that decision.
On March 9, 2020, the SGB members launched an appeal to the MEC for Education, Tate Makgoe, against the HOD’s decision.
The MEC dismissed their appeal on 27 July, 2020.
In the background, the Grey secondary school principal, Scheepers, was fighting to save his job after the SGB stripped him of virtually all his responsibilities as headmaster.
At a meeting held on May 15, 2018, the SGB had passed a resolution to withdraw the “rights” and “duties” that it had ostensibly delegated to the principal.
Announcing the decision, SGB chairman Büchner cited the breakdown of trust between the body and Scheepers who was appointed principal in 2013.
After a few years of his rocky tenure at the helm of the school, the SGB then alleged he was not equipped to handle complex racial issues, was not approachable to parents and did not enjoy the respect of learners because he was “not emotionally connected to them”.
Apart from accusing him of victimising educators and bullying them, the body also claimed that, with Scheepers in charge, there was a lack of visible discipline at Grey which impacted on the school’s academic performance.
The SGB then appointed Grey primary school principal Jurie Geldenhuys to manage all school activities of the secondary school, except for teaching and learning.
The decision to withdraw Scheepers’ powers was set aside by the High Court on September 6, 2018, a decision that went on to be confirmed by the SCA on 3 July, 2020 after the SGB’s appeal fell through.
In their case against the HOD, the SGB members decried the alleged failure by Malakoane to observe the code of conduct for the school governing bodies when the decision to terminate their membership was taken.
They criticised the speed at which their membership was terminated while the HOD was allegedly slow to dismiss the principal “who is also accused of worst transgressions”.
However, Judge Nobulawo Martha Mbhele dismissed the SGB members’ application with costs.
In her ruling handed down on March 18, 2021, the judge noted the investigative reports that prompted the HOD to intervene alleged serious acts of misconduct against the applicants which called for disciplinary processes as prescribed in the code of conduct.
“Learning and governance had to proceed and it was necessary for the HOD to intervene,” she said.
“The parties were afforded time to plead their case with the HOD and they failed.
“The HOD had to act to safeguard the interests of all parties involved.
“For all the reasons stated above, the application for review must fail.”
