Johannesburg – The DA will march to Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s office on Tuesday in their fight against the “discriminatory” Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill.
The bill, which was introduced to Parliament on January 10, seeks to hand control to the department in determining a school’s language policy.
The DA has raised concerns about the bill on numerous occasions and said it was firmly opposed to the ANC-led governing party taking over schools and school language policy.
“The DA has a number of concerns over the bill, which ”Lesufi-clauses” seek to disempower school governing bodies (SGBs) with regard to language and admissions policies. We believe the power should remain with the SGBs who know and understand the needs of their communities and have their best interests at heart,” said DA spokesperson on education, Baxolile Nodada, on Thursday (June 30).
The party said the ANC was attacking mother-tongue education, especially Afrikaans and would “destroy” South African schools.
“The DA will not stand for this. The protest will be led by the DA's Federal Council chair, Helen Zille, who will be joined by Nodada, DA shadow deputy minister of basic education, Desiree van der Walt, DA Gauteng shadow MEC for education, Khume Ramulifho and DA interim-youth leader, Nicholas Nyati,” the opposition party said.
The protest is expected to take place at 11.15am on Tuesday outside Lesufi’s office and will broadcast live on the DA's Facebook page and YouTube channel.
The Star