The Bela Act is about the children, and the better future that can await them when their parents stop regarding “diversity” as a swear word.
Opposition to the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act is contrived by politicians who have long profited from instilling fear in minority communities that they’re about to be swamped by the African majority.
It’s a new take on the old swartgevaar theme, driven by arguably the most intense disinformation campaign against any piece of legislation in South Africa’s recent history.
What the authors of the disinformation don’t tell you is that they have long lost the battle against inclusive access to education.
It is not the Bela Act that determines the authority of provincial education departments to intervene in school admission and language decisions; that determination has already been made by the constitutional court.
The law is that the head of department does have this authority. What the Bela Act does is define (and limit) the authority by incorporating the binding decisions of the constitutional court into the Schools Act.
No number of Mauser-rattling protest marches in Tshwane by the DA, AfriForum and like-minded partners have the power to overturn a judgment of the country’s apex court.
Besides bringing the Schools Act up to date with the law, the Bela Act provides a set of criteria to be considered by school governing bodies in determining public schools’ admission and language policies.
The inclusion of these criteria should be welcomed because they eliminate the opportunity for personal or group biases to influence public power or resource allocation. They also specifically mitigate against malfeasant decisions being imposed on schools by, for instance, those with an agenda to destroy the Afrikaans language.
The disinformation that the Bela Act seeks to eliminate Afrikaans as a language of learning in public schools unashamedly seeks to mobilise Afrikaans-speaking South Africans to continue to rally behind their own “separate” identity instead of embracing diversity, unity and cohesion.
The Bela Act does not permit a provincial head of department to eliminate Afrikaans as a language of learning. School governing bodies will retain their powers to determine language policy but will be required to take into account the language needs of the broader community in the education district in which the school is situated.
In making their assessments, the governing bodies will have to take the best interests of the child into account, as well as the constitutional requirement for the state to take positive measures to elevate the status and use of indigenous languages, of which Afrikaans is one.
Governing bodies will also bear the right of all South Africans to receive education in their official language of choice, as well as changing language dynamics in communities, enrolment trends and the need for effective use of classroom space.
If governing bodies feel that despite complying with the criteria their decisions have been unjustly overruled by provincial heads of department they’d still have the option of seeking protection from the courts.
When it comes to language of instruction the Bela Act provides that the head of department can require — where practicable — that a public school adopt more than one language of instruction.
Before doing so the head of department must consider the same set of criteria and follow a rigorous consulting process, including notifying parents of children at the school and in the community, facilitating representations by all parties, and convening public hearings.
If a head of department, having considered all the factors and representations, decides to instruct a school to add another language of instruction then the head of department must also ensure that the school receives all the necessary resources, including educators, to give effect to the decision.
Bela thus clearly limits the powers of heads of department to change languages of instruction, or to remove Afrikaans, and only affords them the power to add an additional language of instruction after having considered prescribed factors and ensured the provision of necessary resources.
The Bela Act balances the powers of school governing bodies, representing the interests of current learners at their school, and their parents, against the broader interests of society. And it tempers the rights of governing bodies to take decisions, under cover of language, to maintain racial division, without empowering heads of departments to make ill-considered decisions.
While governing bodies focus on managing the school, provincial heads of department and officials take a broader view of resource shortages against demand.
This balancing act is the only rational way to manage fair and efficient access to public resources and assets in an environment of huge demand for education services.
The rhetoric and disinformation campaigns run by adults, some of whom claim to be political and cultural leaders, have been divisive, dishonest and conspiratorial.
They miss the central point: that the Bela Act is about the children, and the better future that can await them when their parents stop regarding “diversity” as a swear word.
Brett Herron is the secretary general of the Good party and a member of the government of national unity’s clearing house mechanism.