Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube. (X)
Deputy President Paul Mashatile on Friday accused Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube of acting in bad faith by announcing plans to ask President Cyril Ramaphosa to delay implementation of contentious clauses in the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act.
Gwarube on Thursday said a dispute that trade union Solidarity had declared at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) about sections 4 and 5 of the Act had been resolved through a bilateral agreement that she would advise Ramaphosa that regulations clarifying the legal import of the sections should be adopted first.
These should, inter alia, define the role of school governing bodies in setting admission and language policy, according to the text of the three-page agreement.
Gwarube, in a separate statement, undertook to impress upon Ramaphosa that every child had a constitutional right to be taught in their mother tongue where possible.
”The parties have reached an understanding of how concerns relating to sections 4 and 5 of the Bela Act may be addressed,” she said.
“This validates my long-held view that dialogue is the best remedy for conflict resolution.”
Gwarube added a disclaimer that the agreement with Solidarity did not “in any way serve as a substitute for the consultations that are currently under way” on the Act between coalition partners in the cabinet clearing house.
On Friday Mashatile’s office said he was not directly informed of the agreement and had written to all parties in the government of national unity (GNU) to stress that it fell outside the formal process under way in the clearing house.
He noted that one member of the 10-party GNU had signed the agreement with Solidarity, which declared the dispute at Nedlac last month. It also bears the signature of Matsietsi Mekoa, the deputy director general for corporate management in the presidency.
“Based on the statement, the minister of basic education and an official from government would have been complicit in this meeting,” Mashatile said.
Talks in the clearing house on the Act were ongoing and would be finalised soon, he added.
“We call on all parties that signed the statement of intent to uphold their bona fides and cooperate with the official process. The Bela Act, like other Acts, is a product of parliament and the president, and no intervention can therefore downplay the centrality of these key role players.”
Gwarube’s Democratic Alliance (DA) made further negotiations on the language provisions in the legislation a precondition for entering into coalition with the ANC and cried foul when Ramaphosa signed the Bill into law in September.
He then agreed to suspend implementation for three months — until 13 December — to allow the parties to settle their differences in the clearing house, despite some resistance from ANC ministers who objected to renegotiating a measure passed by parliament before the May elections.
Mashatile has reportedly told recalcitrant ANC members to respect the fact that the outcome of the vote brought about a new political reality that required consultation and compromise.
A sub-committee has been set up in the clearing house to finalise talks on Bela.
Mashatile said on Friday he would soon inform party representatives of the date when its recommendations would be tabled.
Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi this week said there was an accord among coalition members that the way forward on the Act would be agreed before the end of the year.
He said his party believed the legislation was sound and should be implemented henceforth, before urging the DA and the ANC to bring maturity to the process and to the coalition relationship in general.
“All parties need to understand it cannot be a zero sum game in this arrangement.”
Asked about risks to the long-term survival of the 10-party coalition, he said there were two in the main — a tendency to go public with the details of inner discord, and the difficult internal dynamics of the ANC and the DA.
“I don’t know any relationship that survives when we have a private meeting and immediately you go and talk about it. And immediately there is a bit of one-up manship. It is so incredibly immature,” he said.
“The second thing is that the internal dynamics in the ANC and DA might actually be detrimental to the GNU if they are not actively and properly managed by each political party.”
On Thursday, the DA angered the presidency by publicly releasing a letter in which it urged Ramaphosa to rethink South Africa’s planning for its G20 presidency to accommodate the foreign policy views of coalition partners.
Ramaphosa’s office termed it a publicity stunt.