THE EASTERN Cape Education Department is trying to back out of a High Court order it agreed to, in terms of which it said it would build brand new premises for the dilapidated Amasango Career School in Grahamstown.

The department is objecting to a section of the court order in terms of which it was supposed, by March 25, to file an affidavit setting out how it intended “to implement a plan to commence construction of a new school for the Amasango School, such construction to commence by May 2011”.

The affidavit was to also include “confirmation that the new school has been budgeted for”. But the department now says it had not agreed to make this “alternative option” an order of court.

Although the department was legally represented at the court hearing at which Acting Judge Belinda Hartle made the order, its legal representatives have indicated to the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), acting for Amasango, that it intends to seek to have the order rescinded.

If it is successful in its application, the department will have delivered a major blow to the school, which has been fighting for new premises for nearly three years.

The dilapidated school caters for “socially marginalised, impoverished and abused children” and was placed on a priority list of school construction projects in about 2006. Building was to begin in 2007.

LRC regional director Sarah Sephton said the school would oppose any attempt to have the order rescinded. – Daily Dispatch