Johannesburg — HO Ë RSKOOL Ermelo would get four more teachers so that the 95 pupils the Mpumalanga education department has forced the school to take on can be taught in the language of their choice, which is English, the Mpumalanga education department says.

Despite this, the tussle between the Afrikaans-medium school and the department is set to continue, with the school's governing body gearing up to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal against being forced to turn parallel medium.

"The Pretoria High Court refused us leave to appeal, but then there is another route to the Supreme Court of Appeal. One way or another, we will get to the appeal court," the chairman of the school's governing body, Johan Ernst, said.

The department's push to make the Ermelo school parallel medium was a politically motivated attempt to "kill" Afrikaans, said Ernst and Democratic Alliance (DA) arts and culture spokeswoman Desiree van der Walt yesterday.

The DA has taken up the school's cause since the tussle over the school's language policy started nearly a year ago.

"The provincial government's persistence in forcing through a change to the school's language policy has on a number of occasions been exposed as a cynical political game, " said Van der Walt.

The most important thing for the governing body was that the department reinstate suspended principal Koos Kruger, but the department has said Kruger's suspension is not negotiable and will stand until his disciplinary hearing on January 30.

The fact that the department had access to an abandoned convent in Ermelo, which was owned by the provincial government but was not being used, was evidence it was only interested in destroying an Afrikaans-medium school, Van der Walt said.

But department spokesman Hlahla Ngwenya said the abandoned building was "irrelevant" because Ermelo High had the capacity to take in more pupils .

"Why should we negotiate (with the public works department) to use that old school, and spend money renovating it, when there is space at Ermelo High?" he said. "Let's get these learners to school now."