SOME of political and civic organisations are opposed to the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.
And the Democratic Alliance has taken it further by threatening it will disengage from the GNU.
The Bill to be signed into by Pres Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa on Friday at the Union Building, is the bone of contention. Addressing media outside Parliament on Thursday, Pres Ramaphosa said courts are the final abettor if parties deem fit to take this matter the legal route.
BELA Bill amends sections of the South African Schools Act of 1996 (SASA) and the Employment of Educators Act, 1998 (EEA) to account for developments in the education landscape since the enactment of the original legislation.
Simply put- it seeks to address systematic inequalities of basic education in South Africa; and will give authority to determine the admission and language policies at schools.
“We particularly support the fact that heads of departments will now be given the final authority to determine the admission and language policies at schools. The school governing bodies are currently solely responsible for this, and this has enabled them to use this power to exclude African learners and entrench racism at these schools.
“This power has been used as a tool in the hands of white supremacists to isolate African languages, and exclude African children from attending public schools that were formerly exclusively white,” quipped EFF national spokesperson, Leigh-Ann Mathys.
DA’s Willie Aucamp said the president is threatening the GNU which was formed after the May 29 general elections when the ANC lost its majority.
“It is very important to realise that the DA is not threatening to exit the Government of National Unity. The threat to the GNU currently is from the president’s side. The president knew how we and other parties feel about this and he decided to carry on, irrespective of our feelings.
“So it is the ANC that is, in their actions, being a threat to the GNU. We must protect this GNU at all costs and the Democratic Alliance will look at all the options available, plus, should this be signed into law, we will take this to court. We will take this to the Constitutional Court if needs be. We will look at the options available to us,” warned Aucamp.
AfriForum also threatened that it will proceed with legal steps as soon as Ramaphosa signs the BELA Bill.
“AfriForum views the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA) as an attempt at cultural ethnic cleansing by the ANC government, as the implementation of the Bill will enable the destruction of a linguistic and cultural community’s schools, thereby jeopardising the group’s cultural existence,” said Alana Bailey, head of cultural affairs at AfriForum.
But GOOD party is fully behind the Bill.
“Most of the opposition to the Bill has been caused by the typical mass-hysteria of the DA. This does very little to address the real educational challenges faced by the majority of South Africans,” secretary general of GOOD, Brett Herron was quoted.
“Education is a serious issue and there is no time for political games and disinformation, even more so now that the DA finds themselves in the GNU. Using vague, empty threats of instability in government is childish and reflects very poor leadership by those who are supposed to be working for all South Africans.”
The MEC for Education in Gauteng, Matome Chiloane, also backs the Bill, in that it will ‘help the children to learn and study together’.
