By Johnathan Paoli
While Friday is the deadline on a decision on contentious clauses in the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, President Cyril Ramaphosa will most likely make an announcement in the coming days.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile told the SA Communist Party’s national congress on Friday that he handed over his report on matter to the president on Thursday night.
Mashatile’s office is the secretariat of the Government of National Unity clearing house mechanism, which was set up in September to resolve policy disagreements within the 10-member GNU.
He told SACP delegates that Ramaphosa assured him that he would be making an announcement concerning the legislation very soon.
At the centre of the dispute are clauses 4 and 5, which deal with language and placement policies at schools. Ramaphosa gave parties and other stakeholders three months to reach a compromise.
Both the Young Communist League and the Congress of SA Trade Unions on Friday called for the Act to be implemented as is.
YCL president Mluleki Dlelanga criticised the resistance to the law, which he associated with lingering racial disparities in education.
“These people want us to watch rugby with them, but they don’t want our children to study with their children,” he told the congress.
Cosatu’s 1st deputy president Mike Shingange said the future political discourse of the country was dependent upon who was in control of the direction on transforming the education landscape.
He said Cosatu did not give much credence to the three months stipulated by the president.
“The deadline is not today, it was the day that President Ramaphosa signed the Bela Bill into law,” Shingange said.
He also warned that when the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union launched its protest action against compromises on transformation in education, Cosatu would support them.
“When Sadtu goes to the street, they will not go alone. We will fight the Democratic Alliance to ensure that the class struggle is continuing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Solidarity Movement said it was waiting to hear what the president would decide.
“Should the president continue to promulgate the controversial sections before appropriate norms, standards and regulations have been developed, Solidarity and AfriForum will continue to take legal action because it will be unlawful,” it said in a statement on Friday.
INSIDE EDUCATION
