Civil rights organisation AfriForum has requested the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) to reconsider their participation in the Government of National Unity (GNU) should the clause in the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act that it says threatens the continued existence of Afrikaans in schools, be implemented unchanged.

This follows internal emergency discussions held by the organisation's board of directors, in reaction to what it calls a group of “anti-Afrikaans activists” in the African National Congress (ANC), Gauteng government, and even politically driven senior officials in the National Department of Education.

Last month President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the BELA Bill into law, despite a significant degree of public rejection, and concern over its constitutionality.

After consultation, Ramaphosa placed on hold clauses 4 and 5 of the Bill for three months to find solutions to the concerns around them. Should no solutions be found, the Bill would be implemented fully, he said.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said this group was acting “contemptuously” towards Ramaphosa’s decision to create an opportunity for further deliberation on the BELA Act’s language clauses.

He said this group was “openly out to derail constructive discussions and steamroll” the implementation of the BELA Act in its current format and try to make any cooperation within the GNU impossible.

Kriel highlighted that AfriForum’s concerns arose after Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Education MEC Matome Chiloane indicated that there was “no place” for a single-medium Afrikaans school.

“This disdain for further discussion is also shared by several senior officials in the National Department of Education. This was clear during a meeting where an official acted very aggressively towards AfriForum, Solidarity and Saai’s [Southern African Agri Initiative’s] delegates and even indicated that the implementation of the BELA Amendment Act was a forgone conclusion,” he explained.

He pointed out that the hope that the GNU had ushered in a new era of cooperation would be dashed if it turned out that the ANC had simply “co-opted the DA and FF+ to blindly follow ANC policies and even implement draconian policies such as contained in the BELA Act with diligence.”

He indicated that should the BELA Act be fully implemented under the GNU, all those serving in the GNU would be complicit in the BELA Act’s “assault” on the survival of Afrikaans communities.

“Afrikaans speakers do not, like other cultural groups in the country, have large traditional areas in which their cultures are promoted and therefore Afrikaans schools play a central role in the survival of the respective Afrikaans cultural communities across the country,” he said.

He highlighted that the fight against BELA was not just a fight against another law, but was a fight for cultural survival.

Meanwhile, AfriForum said its petition against the BELA Act was gaining momentum.