AfriForum says while BELA Bill is pending, the President’s words about mother-language education are lip service only
15 March 2024
AfriForum responded to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s advocacy for mother-language education that it will remain lip service as long as the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (the so-called BELA Bill) is not scrapped.
According to Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s Head of Cultural Affairs, the current Bill poses the most serious threat to mother-language education in any of the country’s indigenous languages and especially Afrikaans.
Referring to the President’s opening speech at the Department of Basic Education’s meeting yesterday (14 March 2024), she is of the opinion that his reference to children being excluded from quality education and the necessary infrastructure creates the impression that it is the schools’ fault, instead of identifying the real culprit, namely the dysfunctional department.
“For example, AfriForum currently has contact with a school that has to accommodate more than a hundred children per class. Some of the children are being taught under trees. The ablution facilities are horrible. However, the answer to the governing body’s urgent requests is that the department does not have the money to create more facilities and that the school actually has to accommodate another 102 children who presently attend school elsewhere. In terms of the current Schools Act, the governing body can refuse this unreasonable request, but if BELA were to be passed and implemented in its current format, the provincial head can simply ignore them. We also realise that this is not the only school facing such challenges, which makes the situation even more tragic,” Bailey adds.
AfriForum maintains that the articles of the BELA Bill that deal with governing bodies’ decision-making powers regarding admission and language policies, as well as purchases, aim to centralise more power in the government’s hands, while covering up the department’s many shortcomings. “It is also without a doubt directed against Afrikaans schools. We will therefore take all possible national and international steps to oppose the Bill,” she concludes.
AfriForum is keeping the public informed at www.stopbela.co.za about objections to the bill while preparing for legal action against it if it were to be passed in its current format.
Issued by Alana Bailey, Head: Cultural Affairs, AfriForum, 15 March 2024
