Do away with right of veto, otherwise BELA retains its poison

18 April 2024

As long as the Department of Education retains a final say on schools’ language and admissions policies, the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill remains an outrage. 

Solidarity supports requests from political parties to scrap in their entirety the clauses on language and admissions in the bill. However, yesterday these requests were rejected by the ANC majority in the select committee of the National Council of Provinces (NCP).

As a result, provincial heads of education still retain the right of veto with regard to these policies, even though schools are allowed to compile those policies themselves.

According to Johnell Prinsloo, education researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), these changes therefore do not amount to accommodation by the government at all.

“This creates the impression that school governing bodies and parents will retain their say on the important matters of language and admission. Unfortunately, this is not at all the case.

“As long as the final ‘yes or no’ on school policy rests with the education department, the school’s policy will be just as vulnerable to interference as it was from the outset with BELA. Parents and governing bodies and the school community, who have the school’s interests at heart, must make these decisions themselves – not an official with political masters,” Prinsloo said.

According to her, Solidarity takes note of the ANC committee chairman's comment that the right of veto is necessary as the “cold, dead hand of apartheid is still throttling our people”.

“The right of veto in the BELA Bill is actually the ANC’s envious and long fingers that want to use its last signs of life to pull ambitious children back by the collar.

“The government has abandoned schools and school pupils in South Africa, but some communities have remained strong despite this. For us it is clear: this right of veto exists to be applied to these outstanding communities, and only to them,” Prinsloo said.

Issued by Johan Botha, Head: Solidarity Teachers’ Network, 18 April 2024