Stop LesufiI: Make use of recently extended opportunity to submit comments on BELA Bill to save Afrikaans education

29 June 2022 

The parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Basic Education decided last night that written comments on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (the BELA Bill) can be submitted until the 15th of August.

The FF Plus wants to encourage all interested parties who have not yet made use of the opportunity, to make submissions. It is vital to thwart Panyaza Lesufi's plans for Afrikaans education.

This Bill was published for the first time in 2017 and was shrouded in controversy right from the start. It transfers the power to determine a school's language, religious and admission policy from the school governing body to the provincial Head of Department. 

The Bill, furthermore, lowers the school age. In addition, its approach to homeschools, micro-schools, online education and other forms of education that function outside of the outdated paradigm remains unchanged. It is as if Covid-19 never happened.

In the meantime, the Gauteng MEC for Education and new ANC chairperson in the province, Lesufi, was very clear about what he intends to do once the Bill has been adopted: He wants to destroy Afrikaans schools.

He said so in response to a question by the FF Plus's national chairperson, Adv Anton Alberts, in the Gauteng Legislature.

In the Department of Basic Education's briefing of the parliamentary Portfolio Committee, the Department denied that the Bill was drafted for the type of purpose that Lesufi suggested. The problem, however, is that education is a provincial function and Lesufi's view can determine what happens in practice.

A community's right to retain schools as cultural institutions is an integral part of the agreement that was enshrined in the Constitution in 1996.

This Bill is a typical example of an attempt to change the constitutional order without touching the Constitution itself.

In truth, an entirely new educational act is needed; one that recognises the monumental shifts that have occurred in education due to online possibilities as well as parents' need to retain more control over their children's education. But at present, quite the opposite is happening.

Therefore, the FF Plus is calling on all persons and institutions that deal with education to make use of the extended period to submit comments.

Issued by Wynand Boshoff, FF Plus MP and chief spokesperson: Basic Education, 29 June 2022