THE government of South Africa's Northern Province has taken over the controversial primary school in Potgietersrus after its all white parents' body insisted on organising segregated classes on school property.
The decision also follows an apparent arson attack on Monday night in which the principal's office was damaged.
The Potgietersrus school was at the centre of a race row last month after parents at the mainly Afrikaans school attempted to prevent black children from enrolling in the school's English language classes.
Right wing white parents later withdrew their children in protest after the Transvaal Supreme Court upheld a complaint from the mainly black provincial government and ordered the school to abandon racial discrimination.
The parents denied that they were acting on racist motives, saying they were concerned that the school's "Eurocentric culture" would be destroyed if black children were admitted.
Despite the intervention of President Nelson Mandela who called for a national forum on the issue of culture, language and education nearly half of the school's 500 pupils have since been kept away by their parents.
Earlier this week, the school's governing parent body told the acting principal to segregate the English speaking pupils - black and white in a separate part of the grounds.
When the provincial government ordered the principal not to obey, a group of right wing parents occupied the school's hostel and began holding classes there for up to 150 children.
The Northern Province premier, Mr Ngoako Ramatlhodi, announced yesterday that his government was dissolving the school's governing parents' body because it had persisted in attempts to segregate white Afrikaans speaking pupils from blacks despite a court order.
A spokesman for the white parents said they would challenge the action "to the highest court in the land."
. South African police have increased security around the Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini, following newspaper reports of a right wing assassination plot.