No fees case in court

Cape Town - A case scheduled to be heard in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday is highlighting the difficulties single parents face in applying for school fee exemptions for their children.

Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), which is representing Michelle Saffer, a divorced mother of one, said her case was an example of “a systemic issue in the fee exemption process”.

Saffer wants the court to review and set aside a decision by the head of the Western Cape Education Department to uphold a decision by Fish Hoek High School not to grant her a partial school fee exemption for her daughter.

“The EELC will also ask the court to declare the Fee Exemptions Regulations’ requirement to furnish the combined annual gross income of the parents inconsistent with the constitution and invalid, insofar as it may apply to a mother seeking a fee exemption in Ms Saffer’s position,” the centre said.

In her founding affidavit, Saffer states her daughter started attending the school in 2011 and that she made an application for a fee exemption because she could not afford it.

According to the press release, the school adopted the view that Saffer and her ex-husband were a “family unit” even though she had a difficult history with her former spouse.

In her affidavit, she said the school had requested the financial particulars of her ex-husband. Saffer indicated she was unable to provide this, and that it was unreasonable of the school to expect her to do so.

Saffer said she later received a letter from the school informing her it had not received the full co-operation of both biological parents and been unable to finalise her application.

She eventually also received a letter of demand for the fees in arrears.

In her answering affidavit, provincial education head Penny Vinjevold said regulations required that the gross annual income of both parents be provided in order for the exemption calculation to be done.

Vinjevold denied Saffer had been subjected to repeat violations of her constitutional and statutory rights in the course of her applications for school fee exemptions.

She said the Western Cape Education Department recognised there were grey areas in the fee exemption policy, which created loopholes and allowed for varied interpretation and application of the policy by school governing bodies and schools.

Vinjevold said the department had made a submission to the Department of Basic Education to review the regulations.