The stability of South Africa’s uneasy coalition government is about to face a major test as President Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to sign new education reforms into law during a public ceremony on Friday.
In the run-up to May’s general election, which led to the African National Congress (ANC) forming a coalition, the two main partners had clashed over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill.
Despite now sharing power, the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA) remain at odds over the bill’s provisions.
DA leader John Steenhuisen has warned that if the signing proceeds, the party will “have to consider all of our options on the way forward”.
What is in the Bela bill?
The contested bill, which was passed by the ANC-majority parliament shortly before the election, introduces several significant and controversial changes to current education legislation.
Key reforms include:
– School admissions and the language of instruction will be regulated nationally
– Home schooling will be regulated
– Parents who fail to ensure their child is in school may face jail
Grade R, for four and five-year-olds, will be the new compulsory school starting level – a year earlier than currently
– The abolition of corporal punishment will be backed by fines and possibly jail time for those who administer it
The ANC says the changes are necessary in order to transform the education system and address continued inequalities.
Why is there such fierce opposition?
The clause which has caused the most controversy is the one concerning strengthening government oversight over language and admission policies.
This is a sensitive topic relating to racial integration.
The previous ANC government argued that language and other admission criteria were being used to “derail access to schools [for] the majority of learners”.
Although apartheid, a system of legally enforced racism, ended over thirty years ago, its legacy continues to affect certain areas of education.
While the legislation does not explicitly address Afrikaans, the ANC argues that some children are being barred from schools where Afrikaans, the language of the white-minority Afrikaners, is the medium of instruction.
The DA has supported the right of school governing bodies to establish their own language policies, citing constitutional provisions and the importance of learning in one’s native language.
The most vocal opposition has emerged from the Afrikaans-speaking community.
Civil rights group AfriForum has described the bill as an attack against Afrikaans education and has said it remains committed to opposing the legislation as “it poses a threat to the continued existence of Afrikaans schools and quality education”.
The Freedom Front Plus – another one of the 10 parties in the coalition government and seen as representing the interests of Afrikaners – is also opposed to Bela. It called it “ill-conceived”, saying it would “cause needless uncertainty and disputes about clearly established rights and responsibilities related to Basic Education”.
Some are also concerned about the reforms to home schooling. There are currently many unregulated schools popular with the middle classes because of the poor state of government schools.
These are allowed to continue through a loophole in the current law where the students are registered as “home learners” and the teachers offer “tuition”. But through the Bela bill, the government wants to close the loophole and ensure they are regulated like state schools.
Could this threaten the coalition government?
After the ANC lost its outright majority in parliament, it needed coalition partners to remain in power.
It reached a deal with its long-time opponent, the DA, and eight other parties to form the Government of National Unity.
Steenhuisen, who is the agriculture minister, has said that enacting the Bela bill would violate “the letter and spirit” of the coalition agreement as the DA had made it clear that the bill was unacceptable “in its current form”.
But he does not yet appear to be pulling the plug on the coalition.
On Thursday, the DA leader said conflict over policy was not necessarily “an existential threat to the government”, echoing similar comments from the president’s spokesperson.
But Steenhuisen said this did not mean it would never walk away, especially if the ANC was “trashing the constitution”. The DA has said it has some simple amendments to the bill which would make it acceptable and, as it sees it, bring it in line with the constitution. However, these have not been incorporated in the bill signed by President Ramaphosa.