13 September 2024
SADTU STATEMENT ON THE SIGNING OF THE BELA BILL INTO LAW BY PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) welcomes the signing of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (Bela Bill) into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa but is unsettled by the deferral of the immediate implementation of Clauses 4 and 5 by three months to allow for further consultations.
Clause 4 of the Bela bill gives the department of basic education greater control over admissions policy and Clause 5 compels the school governing body to submit the school’s language policy to the provincial head of department for approval.
We believe these two Clauses are crucial towards meeting the objectives of the Bela Bill to deal with administrative challenges that hinder the transformation agenda of our education system to be accessible to all. As SADTU, we are convinced it is proper for the department to have a final say on the schools’ admissions and language policies to ensure they align with the country’s constitution because some school governing bodies have used their powers to formulate policies that exclude other learners.
The Bela Bill has been in the making for more than ten years involving wide and far-reaching public consultation processes, and all the parliamentary processes before it was passed, with a resounding majority, by the democratically elected National Assembly in the latter days of the 6th administration in May 2024. The three months extension granted for further consultation on these two clauses undermine the wide-ranging legitimate processes conducted over so many years.
The Bela Bill represents the collective will and desire of the majority to transform our basic education system from an apartheid design to a democratic value-based system by amending certain sections of the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998 to respond to administrative challenges facing schools to continue with the transformation agenda of our education system.
The bill, which is now a law, will among others, see the following in the country’s education system.
- Grade R shall be the compulsory school starting age.
- More accountability for parents and guardians for their children’s school attendance.
- ban of corporal punishment and extension of its definition to include any act that seek to belittle; humiliate, threaten, and induce fear or ridicule the dignity of a learner.
- Prohibition of drugs, alcohol and weapons from schools and empowerment of schools to search for and confiscate such items.
As we welcome the signing of the Bill into law, we doubt its implementation judging by the absence of the minister of basic education, Siviwe Gwarube at the signing ceremony at the Union Buildings. Her absence is unacceptable. It vindicates our fears that the DA will run a separate parliament and a separate cabinet. “This is just the beginning, where the Minister will be instructed by Helen Zille not to be part of the signing because Zille is another super president of our country,” said SADTU General Secretary, Mugwena Maluleke.
We call on the minister to decide where she takes her orders. “The ball is in the Minister’s court. She must decide and make the President’s work easier by resigning, as she seems to be operating with two bosses: Helen Zille and President Cyril Ramaphosa,” Maluleke said.
We are going to follow closely the consultation processes to ensure that they do not reverse the gains of 30 years of democracy by retaining the privileges that were enjoyed by the minority while excluding the majority in this country.
ISSUED BY: SADTU SECRETARIAT