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Constitutional Court.
The Pestalozzi Trust has filed a Constitutional Court challenge against the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act.
According to the Trust, Parliament failed to allow sufficient public participation, resulting in a flawed and potentially unconstitutional law.
The Trust says for participation to be meaningful, there needs to have been adequate notice of public hearings, proper education about the Bill’s contents and adequate time for the public to express their views.
They claim these requirements were not fulfilled.
“This is a procedural case and we’re very fortunate in that the court issued a very strong judgment in, I think it was 2023 in a case called the Mogale case or the Traditional and Khoisan Leaders Act case – where a very similar process was conducted, they made many similar flaws. And the Constitutional Court struck that Act down on the basis that there had not been an opportunity for meaningful engagement; that parliament didn’t fully consider the views of the public in that case. So that’s very much on a procedural basis of the case that we are kind of following,” explains the Trust’s spokesperson, Chris Cordeiro.
