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City Press reports that Dirk Hermann, the CEO of Solidarity, and Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, convinced President Cyril Ramaphosa in late-night calls and early-morning WhatsApps to agree at the eleventh hour to further consultation on articles 4 and 5 of the controversial Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill before ratifying it.
The BELA Bill is intended to modernise the education system, strengthen school governance and address inequalities. Articles 4 and 5 take away the powers of school governing bodies (SGBs) and parents to decide on the language and admission policy of schools and place it in the hands of provincial education heads who will have the final authority. Ramaphosa made the concession on Friday morning, shortly before signing the legislation. The implementation of these two articles has been postponed for three months so that stakeholders can negotiate "how the different views may be accommodated". Ramaphosa said his decision came after parties in his government of national unity (GNU) requested further negotiations on these issues. Hermann and Kriel made it clear to Ramaphosa that the signing of BELA would be “an act of aggression”. Kriel said: “I told him that, for schools, this is about cultural survival. It is a fight for survival. We went to negotiate and told him there would be a breach of trust with Afrikaners and that it would break the good spirit of the GNU.” Hermann added: “Secondly, we could show him how Afrikaans schools would disappear.” In a joint letter to the president, Hermann and Kriel stated that they considered the BELA law “an existential crisis for our community”. The agreement not implement clauses 4 and 5, and giving stakeholders three months to negotiate these clauses, was reached on Friday morning – less than an hour before Ramaphosa was to sign the legislation. Hermann said that “the next three months will be tough negotiations” and “tensions will increase”. Solidarity plans several workshops, inviting all stakeholders, including the ANC, to deliberate on the clauses.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Dawie Boonzaaier at City Press (subscriber access only)
- Lees ook, Laataand-gesprekke met Kallie en Dirk laat Cyril swig oor Bela, by Netwerk24 (toegang slegs vir intekenare)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page