‘School capture’: Court challenge looms as National Assembly passes controversial Bela Bill

The Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill has moved a step closer to becoming law after approval from the National Assembly.

On Thursday afternoon, the National Assembly passed the bill, which seeks to amend the South African Schools Act.

The passing of the contentious bill comes after the draft legislation was adopted by the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education earlier this month.

What is the Bela Bill about?

Some of the proposals that were adopted in the bill include making Grade R the new compulsory school-starting age and formally penalising parents who fail to enroll their children for school.

The bill will ensure that corporal punishment is no longer allowed at school – with penalties for those found guilty of transgressions.

Regarding the language policy, the draft law states a school governing body will now be required to submit the language policy of a public school and any amendment thereof to the head of department for approval.

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The language policy must take into consideration the language needs of the broader community.

The bill will further provide that the South African Sign Language has the status of an official language for purposes of learning at a public school.

It also states the “head of department, after consultation with the governing body of the school, has the final authority to admit a learner to a public school”.

In addition, no person may bring liquor onto the school premises, or have liquor in his or her possession, consume or sell liquor on public school premises, or during any public school activity unless permission has been sought from the head of department, and then only under strict conditions.

‘School capture’

In a hybrid session on Thursday, the legislation received support from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC).

It was flatly rejected by the Democratic Alliance (DA), the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+).

The opposition parties and civil society organisations staged a picket outside Parliament before the voting process, demanding the bill be scrapped in its entirety.

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The DA has since vowed to challenge the bill in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).

According to DA MP Baxolile Nodada, the proposed law will “empower the ANC to capture, corrupt and collapse our schools – just as it has done in other sectors of society” so the party has no choice, but to legally challenge the bill to prevent “school capture”.

“While we support educational reform, we will not support a Bill that disempowers schools, parents, and communities and fails to address a single one of the systemic challenges that impede quality education, like overcrowding, poor literacy and numeracy, dropouts, terrible school infrastructure, poor quality teaching, and lack of resources,” Nodada said in a statement.

‘Protection of every child’

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga previously defended the bill, rejecting claims that the legislation was an attack on Afrikaans. She argued the bill was rather meant for the “protection of every child to have access to education”.

The bill will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence before it is signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

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