South Africa’s Unity Government Shows Cracks Over Education Bill
Critics argue that the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill gives the government unnecessary influence on language and admission policies in schools.
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen says the new education bill, if signed, could have “destructive implications” for South Africa’s unity government.
A new education bill set to be signed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing serious pushback from the country’s second biggest political party and unity government partner. It’s the first major sign of conflict between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), with the latter arguing that the bill will give the government unnecessary influence over white minority schools.
After the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the first post-Apartheid elections were held 30 years ago, it teamed up with the DA and a few other smaller political parties to form the Government of National Unity (GNU). In discussions to form the coalition, “the DA made it clear that the BELA Bill was unacceptable to us in its current form, because it has constitutional implications for the right to mother-tongue education, among other issues,” the party said in a statement.
Ramaphosa is scheduled to sign the bill into law on Friday, September 13. DA leader and agriculture minister John Steenhuisen has called for an urgent meeting with the president before the bill is signed. “The DA regards this issue in the most serious light, and I will convey to the president the destructive implications it holds for the future of the GNU,” he said.
The controversial part of the bill concerns clauses that give the government the power to determine language and admission policies in schools. The bill is being decried by critics as a threat to single-language schools, especially schools where Afrikaans, the language that developed among Dutch and other European colonial settlers in the 17th century, is the primary teaching language. Most schools in South Africa use English as their official language.
Earlier this year, the ANC-led government said the bill “seeks to strengthen governance in schools by tightening certain sections which have created challenges for the sector.” It issued the statement in response to the DA's criticism, adding that the bill “responds to the current needs in terms of the changing demographics of our communities, findings by the courts and our own observations as we monitor schools.”
The ANC believes that the bill will avoid the exclusion of majority Black learners from schools where the only language of instruction is Afrikaans. However, the DA and some civil society groups believe that the government interference will overrun the much-needed autonomy of parents and community leaders who form individual school governing bodies.
“If the president continues to ride roughshod over these objections, he is endangering the future of the government of national unity and destroying the good faith on which it was based,” Steenhuisen said.
President Ramaphosa can sign the bill on Friday or return it to parliament for further deliberation and amendment, if he believes it wouldn’t hold up under constitutional and judicial scrutiny.
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