By Simon Nare and Lungile Ntimba
President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended his decision to sign the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, saying the Constitution obliged him to do so.
In his weekly Monday newsletter, Ramaphosa said he had to listened to the voices of political parties within the Government of National Unity (GNU) who had pleaded with him to reconsider clauses 4 and 5 which dealt with school admissions and language policy.
The president said he had to listened to other voices even though the Bill had gone through the parliamentary process.
“The Constitution is quite clear on the responsibilities of the president with respect to signing legislation. Once a Bill has been passed by Parliament, the President must either assent to the Bill or, if they have reservations about its constitutionality, refer it back to Parliament. Since, after considering all the various submissions, I had no such reservations about the BELA Bill, the Constitution obliged me to assent to it.
“However, even as I
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