Bela Bill stalls at Council of Provinces

There was a sigh of relief yesterday after the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill process was delayed at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

AfriForum Youth yesterday picketed outside the department of basic education to protest against the Bela Bill, holding posters with slogans such as “Afrikaans schools are our right” and “Bela is bad”.

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“We hope it’s the beginning of the end for the Bill,” AfriForum Youth spokesperson Louis Boshoff said.

“The fact that better attention is being paid to parliamentary procedures also shows public pressure is succeeding in preventing Bills from being lightly steamrolled.”

Boshoff said they were concerned about the risks this Bill posed for Afrikaans education, as it placed the power to change a school’s language policy in the hands of provincial heads of education.

“Although the latest amendments now give school governing bodies the initial decision on language and admissions policies, the final approval still rests with the provincial head of education.

“These amendments do little to allay concerns about political interference.

“Regardless of the intentions of the current heads of education, Bela offers the opportunity for someone with ill intentions to deal a tremendous blow to Afrikaans in public schools, and we cannot let this continue without opposition,” he said.

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Boshoff said the battle against Bela was a battle for the preservation of the Afrikaans language.

John Nkosi, a car guard working outside the department while AfriForum picketed, said AfriForum Youth had a right to fight for their mother tongue.

Afrikaans was a good language and helped him communicate with Pretoria residents, he said.

“It doesn’t help to learn isiZulu, because you can’t use it everywhere. “But in English and Afrikaans, you can communicate.”

Nkosi said the government should be focussing on other things. Dr Wynand Boshoff, Freedom Front Plus MP and chief spokesperson of basic education, said the controversial Bill had suffered an unexpected setback at the NCOP because it was not published on the prescribed parliamentary list of announcements, tablings and committee reports (ATC).

“All documents to be considered by parliament must be published on the ATC list,” he said.

“The Bill has to be correctly published before the NCOP can consider and adopt it. Then it will be referred back to the National Assembly.”