BELA Bill pushed through committee despite unanswered questions on public participation

18 August 2023

Yesterday, the ANC pushed the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill through the parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education despite various objections by opposition parties and serious questions and concerns that remain unanswered.

Earlier this week, the DA walked out of the clause-by-clause deliberations of the Bill when the committee adopted an erroneous draft Consolidated BELA Bill National Report and refused that questions be answered regarding the processing and analysis of submissions from the public.

The DA has continuously raised objections to clauses in the BELA Bill that will disempower school governing bodies (SGBs) and communities from making decisions about their schools’ admission and language policies. We are concerned that these clauses would not only be used to target mother tongue education schools, but that those schools will have no true avenue for recourse as the provincial heads of basic education departments would be both player and referee.

The clause-by-clause deliberations have been marked by a concerted ANC push for more centralisation and imbuing the Minister with powers that intrude on the provincial sphere.

One of the clauses that was particularly contentious with the public was on homeschooling. While Parliamentary Legal Services (PLS) has committed to redraft the clause, the Department of Basic Education’s adamant refusal to further engage with and consult the homeschooling sector is a great concern.

We welcome PLS’ support of our request to include a Parliamentary recourse mechanism for undesirable or unreasonable regulations made by the Minister and that some of the proposed regulations should rather be legislated. We also welcome the addition of definitions for blended and online learning after the DA's arguments on this legal lacuna was acceded.

The DA still maintains that the BELA Bill is undesirable, and we objected to the motion of desirability based on the strong centralisation of power.

We will continue to fight the BELA Bill and advocate for legislation that empowers communities and learners and will ensure them of a quality education. The BELA Bill fails to address the most pressing issues in the system such as – unsafe infrastructure, overcrowding, quality of teaching, and dropouts among others.

Issued by Bax Nodada, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 18 August 2023