Governance and Administrative Action | The Bel Porto Case

The Western Cape Government developed a comprehensive plan to transform and rationalise the racially divided school system provided for children with special needs. Workers who felt they had unjustifiably come off second best in the rationalisation challenged the plan. The majority of the Court agreed with Chief Justice Chaskalson that the restructuring was done on reasonable principles by the government, and the courts should not interfere. In a joint dissent, Justices Mokgoro and Sachs stated that the plans had failed to take account of the very special relationships between learners and educators in special needs schools.