BELA action needed now: Groups convene over law aiming to anglicise schools

9 October 2024

Action plans regarding the Basic Education Act (BELA) will be drawn up and announced tomorrow (10 October) in the presence of almost 50 organisations, at least 71 schools and other groups with an interest in Afrikaans education. 

This action summit is presented by Solidarity, AfriForum and the Solidarity Support Centre for Schools (“Skoleondersteuningsentrum” – SOS) and is specifically aimed at school governing bodies, school management and Afrikaans institutions.

This event takes place within the three-month period stipulated by President Cyril Ramaphosa to hold further discussions on sections 4 and 5 of the BELA Act before it is implemented.

These sections will remove final decision-making on school policy regarding language and admissions from governing bodies and transfer it to government officials. The period of three months for discussions since the BELA Bill was signed into law by President Ramaphosa on 13 September will expire at the end of the year. So far no new agreement has been reached. 

According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, BELA can indeed be described as a crisis for the future of Afrikaans, the Afrikaner culture and mother-tongue education; therefore, urgent action plans are needed.

“Even though this battle is one of the most important ever fought, the struggle for the Afrikaans language’s right to exist is nothing new. This time it is an attack under an ANC banner. 

“The ANC are now the ‘colonists of a special kind’! Like colonial powers of the past they pay no attention to good educational principles, solemn constitutional agreements on mother-tongue education and parents’ or governing bodies’ democratic rights.

“No respect is shown for the fundamental interests of cultural communities,” Buys said. 

According to Buys, the BELA Action Summit will use this opportunity to appeal to organisations and interest groups to demonstrate in a practical and visible way their support for Afrikaans and their antipathy to BELA.

Among the speakers who have indicated they will attend the summit is Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube.

Representatives of Solidarity, AfriForum and the SOS will talk about the critical importance of partnership in the fight against BELA and indicate which specific actions will characterise the fight going forward.
Solidarity, AfriForum and the SOS plan legal action if the clauses in the Act are implemented unamended.
The BELA Action Summit takes place tomorrow at 09:00 on the Sol-Tech campus in Monument Park, Pretoria.

Issued by Flip Buys, Spokesperson, Solidarity, 9 October 2024