The suspension of Ermelo Hoerskool principal Jacobus Kruger was an act of aggression against the Afrikaans-speaking public, AfriForum said on Friday.

In a statement, AfriForum, a civil rights initiative of trade union

Solidarity, said it regarded Kruger's suspension by the Mpumalanga education department as "an act of aggression against Afrikaans, Afrikaans schools, the Afrikaans-speaking public and the principle of mother-tongue education".

On Thursday, Kruger was suspended with full pay for allegedly contravening the Employment of Educators Act 76 of 1998.

Afriforum's chief executive Kallie Kriel said it was "evident" that the government was prepared to abuse the State's power to its extreme in order to wage an ideologically-driven campaign against Afrikaans schools.

He claimed this abuse of power emulated that of Education Minister Naledi Pandor's own abuse of the State.

Kriel was referring to Pandor "stripping" Ermelo High School of its status as a single-medium Afrikaans school in 2007.

This, in spite of the constitution which allowed for single-medium institutions, he said.

Kriel said there was not one example of Pandor stepping in to change the language policy of a single-medium English high school.

"Contrary to this approach, the Minister has deemed it necessary to deploy the full might of the State in order to ensure that there will henceforth not be two Afrikaans single-medium schools in Mpumalanga any longer, but one only," Kriel added.

The DA's Mpumalanga provincial leader Anthony Benadie called on education MEC Siphosizwe Masango to immediately make the grounds for Kruger's suspension public.

However, department spokesman Hlahla Ngwenya said the allegations of misconduct against Kruger would not be made public until the disciplinary hearing or inquiry was complete.

Kruger would remain on fully paid suspension until his disciplinary hearing on January 30 at the Ermelo Circuit Office.

Ngwenya said Ermelo circuit manager Frank Hlatshwayo had been appointed as the caretaker principal of the school in the interim.

Benadie said the DA had established that one of the charges brought against Kruger was his alleged failure to report to the department on the admission applications of Afrikaans pupils in November 2007.

He said the interest of the pupils, both English and Afrikaans, were no longer the issue at hand, but rather the "hidden political agenda" of the African National Congress which was driven by department officials.

"The naming of the circuit manager Mr Hlatshwayo as the caretaker principal exposes the political intentions of the department to effectively take over the school and enforce its will on the school, its learners and the school governing body at the expense of education," Benadie said.

"The department is turning the Ermelo Hoerskool into a political circus," he said.

The Sowetan newspaper reported on Friday that Kruger had been dismissed after the department had learnt that 2008's intake of English-speaking pupils had been placed in the school hall and were not being taught.

In October last year, the Pretoria High Court dismissed with costs a review application by the school to set aside a decision forcing it to admit English-speaking pupils and become a parallel medium school.

The provincial education department revoked the powers of the school's governing body to determine language policy and appointed a committee in its place when the school refused to admit English-speaking pupils.

In October, DA leader Helen Zille backed the school's battle to remain an Afrikaans-only school and said its constitutional rights had been violated by the ruling.