By Simon Nare
The DA has refused to be drawn on whether it will heed a call by civil society group AfriForum to leave the Government of National Unity over the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, which the organisation believes threatens the existence of Afrikaans schools.
Rather Democratic Alliance spokesperson Karabo Khakhau said the party was engaging the African National Congress in the GNU to resolve matters of concern in the legislation and properly protect mother tongue education for all.
“If the DA were not in the GNU, the full act would already be in force, but it isn’t,” said Khakhau.
She, however, refused to comment on whether the party would consider quitting the GNU if the talks over two clauses and court action failed, saying the party would report any progress soon.
AfriForum announced that its board has unanimously decided to officially request the DA and FF Plus to reconsider their participation in the GNU should the Act be implemented in its entirety.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed the bill into law but suspended the clauses that deal with language and the powers of school governing bodies.
Ramaphosa gave the parties in the GNU three months to find common ground failing which he would sign the other clauses.
The DA in its initial response said it would take the matter court.
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said the organisation decided on this move after learning about a group of ANC members acting contemptuously towards Ramaphosa’s decision to give parties three months to find a common ground.
Kriel described the group within the ANC as anti-African and was primarily within the Gauteng government.
“This anti-African group is openly out to derail constructive discussions and steamroll the implementation of the Bela Act in its current format and try to make any cooperation within the GNU impossible,” claimed Kriel.
Kriel said the hope that the GNU had ushered in a new era of cooperation would be dashed if it turned out that the ANC has simply co-opted the DA and FF+ to slavishly follow ANC policies.
He argued that parties like the DA and the FF+ did not have the right to participate in the injustice that would be perpetrated against Afrikaans children and schools by the Bela Act in its current format.
“Afrikaans speakers do not, like other cultural groups in the country, have large traditional areas in which their cultures are promoted and, therefore, Afrikaans schools play a central role in the survival of the respective Afrikaans cultural communities across the country.
“Precisely because of this, the fight against Bela is not just a fight against another law, but it is a fight for cultural survival,” said Kriel.
Kriel said the organisation’s concern stemmed from Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi who has publicly said there would be no room for a single medium Afrikaans school.
He said these comments by Lesufi were made while parties were negotiating. He also cited Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane for his “wistfully counting down the days” to implement the new law.
“This disdain for further discussion is also shared by a number of senior officials in the national Department of Education. This was clear during a meeting where an official acted very aggressively towards AfriForum, Solidarity and Saai’s (Southern African Agri Initiative) delegates and even indicated that the implementation of the Bela Amendment Act was a foregone conclusion,” said Kriel.
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