DA submits BELA Bill submissions
13 June 2022
Note to Editors: Please find attached English and isiXhosa soundbites by Baxolile ‘Bax’ Nodada MP, and Afrikaans soundbite by Desiree van der Walt MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Basic Education.
The DA has submitted our comments on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill, and encourages the public to submit their concerns to Parliament by 15 June 2022.
It is of crucial importance that the parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education receive as many submissions as possible highlighting the problematic clauses of the BELA Bill, including the ‘Lesufi-clauses’ that seeks to remove the power to determine admissions and language policies from school governing bodies while also curtailing the local communities’ ability to oppose the policy changes.
The DA is also concerned about this specific public participation process, which disadvantaged speakers of indigenous languages. While English calls for comment were published in a national paper, calls for comment in the other official languages were only published in regional papers and those speakers were not given the same amount of time to submit their comments.