The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urges President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act Bill (BELA Bill) as a matter of the utmost urgency.
COSATU is making the call in support of its dedicated and militant affiliate, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU), after the newly appointed Minister for Basic Education, Ms. Siviwe Gwarube, said she would request the President to refer the Bill back to Parliament.
The Federation finds Gwarube’s comments offensive given that the Bela Bill was passed by a resounding majority in the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces during the 6th administration. It is no secret that the Democratic Alliance (DA), the party from which Gwarube hails, was opposed to the Bill from the onset. Some scurrilous organisations opposed to the transformation mandate and to ensuring all schools are accessible to learners, in particular the poor, have been at the forefront of opposing this pragmatic, common sense and long overdue Bill. The DA sadly has a notorious history of opposing progressive legislation that aims to transform South African society for the better.
It is disturbing that during the public debate some opponents opted to deliberately distort the BELA Bill’s provisions and others even fabricated content that is not actually in the Bill.
The BELA Bill contains several progressive and some long overdue provisions, including:
- Establishing Grade R as a required part of schooling for all learners. This will help lay a stronger foundation for learners entering Grade 1.
- Clear guidelines for school admission, diversity and inclusivity policies to prevent unfair discrimination and exclusion of learners.
- Clear guidelines as well checks and balances for school language of instruction policies to ensure learners’ needs, diversity and constitutional linguistic rights are accommodated.
- Recognition of South African Sign Language as a language of instruction and learning.
- Strengthening rules prohibiting drugs, alcohol and weapons from schools and empowering schools to search for and confiscate such items as needed.
- Banning corporal punishment and initiation practices from schools.
- Measures to ensure financial accountability and prohibit officials from doing business with schools.
It took almost 10 years of extensive consultations for Parliament, which represents the collective will and desire of the majority of society to transform our basic education system, to adopt the BELA Bill. The Bill seeks to ensure the accommodation of South African’s official languages and to address the historical injustice of forcing learners whose mother tongue is neither Afrikaans nor English to study in these languages. Opposition to the Bill is intended to undermine the introduction of Mother Tongue Based Education which seeks to empower the majority of learners in our country.
COSATU alongside SADTU will vigorously oppose and challenge any attempt to reverse the gains of 30 years of democracy. Minister Gwarube should remember that elections are over, her party is now part of the Government of National Unity, respect the laws adopted by Parliament, get on with addressing the challenges facing teachers and learners at our schools and leave ideological distractions.
Issued by COSATU
For more information please contact:
Zanele Sabela(COSATU National Spokesperson)
Cell: 079 287 5788
Email: zanele@cosatu.org.za