OUDTSHOORN NEWS - Equal Education wants the private land on which Grootkraal Primary near the Cango Caves, is situated, to be expropriated. The land belongs to Cango Caves Estate.
The lobby group last week said in a statement that it included its opinion in a submission to the Joint Constitutional Review Committee, which is at present trying to ascertain whether a review of Section 25 of the Constitution is necessary to make it possible for the state to expropriate land without compensation.
Equal Education also said the South African Schools Act makes provision for schools to be operated on private land through a long-term lease, but that this right is currently being threatened by farm owners controlling the land. According to them, this right is threatened when farm owners decide to increase rent, sell the land or decide to use it for other purposes. In their statement, Equal Education refers to Grootkraal Primary as an example.
"In 2011, a new landowner allegedly refused to extend the lease and, as a consequence, the school was closed and 160 pupils had to be moved to a school nearly 120 km away." Regarding the possibility of expropriation, the statement says, "In the Grootkraal case, the MEC for Education in the Western Cape failed to exercise her statutory duty to consider expropriation before proposing to 'relocate' [pupils]."
Lodewyk de Klerk, the spokesperson for Cango Caves Estate, pointed out that the information given is totally wrong. The new owners of Grootkraal farm did not refuse to extend the lease, but wanted to negotiate a market-related rental," De Klerk said. Secondly, he points out that the school was not closed down and relocated to a place 120 km away.
"The then MEC for Education, Donald Grant, informed the owners of Cango Caves Estate at a meeting in April 2011 that he (the WCED) wanted to close the school and move the pupils to another, more suitable school 18 km, and not 120km away."
According to De Klerk, that process was thwarted when the headmaster obtained an interdict against the WCED, effectively preventing the department from closing the school in July 2011.
"The school continues to exist on the farm," said De Klerk. "Over the past seven years, the landowner has tirelessly tried to obtain a rental contract with the WCED, but to no avail. As a result, no rent has been paid since May 2010. In addition, the 160 learners are still being transported, also from Oudtshoorn, in three buses owned by the headmaster."
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