‘No, we want it now’: Mashatile pushes back on DA demands on Bela Act

Deputy President Paul Mashatile has assured ANC supporters the party is pushing back against the DA’s demands to have certain clauses of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act scrapped.

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the act into law in September but delayed the implementation of two clauses, 4 and 5, by three months to allow for further discussion in parliament. The DA, the ANC's partner in the government of national unity (GNU), has rejected the two clauses in the act.

The clauses under debate deal with policies on admission to state schools proposing changes to the authority of school governing bodies in determining admission policy. The other clause deals with language in schools.

Mashatile, speaking at the Steve Tshwete Memorial Lecture on Saturday in the Eastern Cape, said the ANC is fighting for the clauses not to be excluded.

“We will continue to invest in the promotion of our indigenous languages. It is in this regard that we are convinced that we in government were correct to get the Bela Bill passed by parliament. There are people who want to remove it. I was reading on social media as I was coming here that there is an agreement somewhere that some of the clauses in the act should be scrapped. We are saying no, we cannot exclude the clauses,” Mashatile said.

Solidarity Movement, which protested with the DA against the act, on Thursday said there was a settlement for the disputed provisions not to be implemented.

Mashatile, however, disputed this saying the government has not reached an agreement regarding proposed exclusion of Bela Act provisions.

“The president appointed me to chair the clearing house on behalf of all parties so that we can fix this thing. Other people are saying, ‘language and admissions are not important, we will see to it some other time.’ No, we want it now. It must be sorted now,” he said. 

Solidarity Movement in a statement had said: “In terms of the settlement, the controversial sections in the Bela Act will no longer be implemented on December 13. Norms and standards and national policies and regulations must first be developed which will, among other things, determine that schools which are running at their full capacity may not receive instructions to change their language and admission policy. This will all form part of a process in which the minister of basic education Siviwe Gwarube will make comprehensive recommendations to Ramaphosa for his due consideration.”