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ActionSA welcomes Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube’s announcement of her intention to request that President Cyril Ramaphosa halts signing the flawed Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill and refers it back to Parliament.

ActionSA has long argued that the BELA Bill, marred by widespread objection, is a fundamentally flawed legislative attempt to camouflage the structural deficiencies of South Africa’s education system resulting from decades of systemic mismanagement, and thus fails to address the existing challenges in our education system.

The Minister's communicated intention comes as a relief following the stubborn posture taken by the ANC in the 6th administration, who were hell-bent on pushing through the legislation which undoubtedly would only serve to compound the challenges by introducing a series of proposals that lack coherence and fail to align with the actual needs and realities of our education landscape.

From disempowering parents and SGBs, to the blanket lifting of the ban on the sale of alcohol at schools, granting DBE unilateral powers to set a school’s language, the ill-thought-out introduction of compulsory grade R, and the outdated use of the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment which does not adequately estimate the fiscal and economic impact of implementing the Bill, these are some of the reasons why this bill must urgently be sent back to Parliament for revision.

ActionSA urges the Minister to ensure that her petition to the President makes clear that the BELA Bill simply will not make the necessary inroads to improve the dysfunction within our education system, which has left nearly 80% of all schools characterised as dysfunctional.

ActionSA, now represented in the 7th Parliament, will fight to ensure that the Bill, if referred back to Parliament, meaningfully reflects the substantive contributions and necessary amendments, including those proposed by civil society, to address the real deficiencies that have led to the decline of our education system.

Issued by ActionSA Parliamentary Caucus Chief Whip Lerato Ngobeni