AfriForum asks DA and FF+ to reconsider GNU should Bela Act stay

2 October 2024

The civil rights organisation AfriForum’s board of directors decided unanimously to officially request the DA and FF+ to reconsider their participation in the government of national unity (GNU) should the clause in the Bela Amendment Act that threatens the continued existence of Afrikaans schools, be implemented unchanged.

According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, this decision follows internal emergency discussions held in reaction to the fact that there is a group of anti-Afrikaans activists in the ANC, Gauteng government, and even politically driven senior officials in the National Department of Education who are acting contemptuously towards President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to create an opportunity for further deliberation on the Bela Act’s language clauses. “This anti-Afrikaans group is openly out to derail constructive discussions and steamroll the implementation of the Bela Act in its current format and try to make any cooperation with the GNU impossible,” Kriel argues.

Kriel pointed out that the hope that the GNU has ushered in a new era of cooperation will be dashed if it turns out that the ANC has simply co-opted the DA and FF+ to blindly follow ANC policies and even implement draconian policies such as contained in the Bela Act with diligence.

“Hannah Arendt said that one does not have the right to obey injustice. Likewise, parties like the DA and the FF+ do not have the right to participate in the injustice that will be perpetrated against Afrikaans children and schools by the Bela Act in its current format,” says Kriel.

Kriel indicated that should the Bela Act be fully implemented under the GNU, all those serving in the GNU would be complicit in the Bela Act’s assault on the survival of Afrikaans communities. “Afrikaans speakers do not, like other cultural groups in the country, have large traditional areas in which their cultures are promoted and therefore Afrikaans schools play a central role in the survival of the respective Afrikaans cultural communities across the country. Precisely because of this, the fight against Bela is not just a fight against another law, but it is a fight for cultural survival,” adds Kriel.

According to Kriel, AfriForum’s concern about the current discussion process regarding the Bela Act stems from, among other things, the fact that the Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, and his MEC for Education, Matome Chiloane, have already indicated that there is no place for a single-medium Afrikaans school, while Chiloane is even wistfully counting down the days before he can implement Bela’s anti-Afrikaans clauses. “This disdain for further discussion is also shared by a number of senior officials in the National Department of Education. This was clear during a meeting where an official acted very aggressively towards AfriForum, Solidarity and Saai’s delegates and even indicated that the implementation of the Bela Amendment Act was a forgone conclusion,” says Kriel.

According to Kriel, AfriForum continues to mobilize public opposition against Bela and more than 215,000 people have already signed AfriForum’s petition against this law at www.stopbela.co.za. AfriForum, Solidarity and numerous other role players are also planning several other protest actions against the Bela Act which will be announced later.

Issued by Kallie Kriel, AfriForum, CEO, 2 October 2024