AfriForum ready for legal action if BELA Bill is passed; monitors parliamentary process

AfriForum emphasises that the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (also known as the BELA Bill) will be extremely harmful to education in the country if it were to be passed in its current format. The civil rights organisation therefore is ready to oppose it with litigation if required. These comments follow in response to the current controversial discussion of the bill by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Basic Education.

Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s head of Cultural Affairs, states that it causes grave concerns to note that members of the committee were prepared to deal with the bill without considering all public input. “It also raises questions about how seriously the public’s input are being taken and how thoroughly the rest of the submissions have been studied,” she says.

“Apart from the public’s opinions, the committee should note that several provisions in the proposed legislation contravenes stipulations in the Constitution, as well as judgments of the Constitutional Court. By trying to steamroll the bill through parliament before the national election of 2024, the door is being left open for many legal actions for which the stakeholders – including AfriForum – already are prepared,” Bailey adds.

Bailey explains that opposition to the legislation is essential, as it has the potential to destroy aspects such as the right of access to mother-language education, the privacy of members of school governing bodies, limited class sizes for the sake of quality education, and the active involvement of school communities via democratically elected school governing bodies.

“Education is already in a precarious state in the country. We cannot allow legislation to be passed that will worsen the situation even further,” concludes Bailey.