'They want to defend privileged white schools': Blade Nzimande on DA’s push against Bela Act implementation

Minister of science, technology and innovation and SACP national chair Blade Nzimande says the push by the DA against the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act is mainly to defend “privileged white schools” using the Afrikaans language as a front.

The SACP is urging its tripartite partner, the ANC, to implement the act without any changes. The DA has rejected the implementation of the Bela Act, saying it will cause “harm” to mother tongue education.

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the act into law in September but delayed the implementation of two clauses — 4 and 5 — by three months, to allow for further parliamentary discussions. One of the contested clauses proposes changes to the authority of school governing bodies in determining admission policy in state schools. The other clause wants state schools when determining language policy to take into account the language needs of the broader community.

Parties that have rejected the amendment argue that the act would endanger the survival of the Afrikaans language.   

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday ahead of the SACP special national conference, Nzimande said parties and organisations fighting against the act were using the Afrikaans language as bait. 

“They had put all their eggs into [one basket of] securing the Afrikaner schools, using the Afrikaans language to discriminate against those who do not speak the language. That is why the National Party left the government. I am not surprised when the Bela Bill was proposed they saw an opportunity to renege this. I am not sure why this is still even an issue, but for them it is because they want privileged white schools. They want to preserve white schools using language,” Nzimande said.

The former minister of higher education said the ANC had won the battle of doing away with the language divide in schools in the early years of democracy. He was confident the act will be implemented without changes. 

“I am absolutely sure that we will win this fight, this act must be implemented totally. Our view as the SACP is that the act must be implemented as it is, together with the NHI. If it means we need to build a front on the education to defend the Bela act we will do so.”

He described basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube’s settlement with Solidarity to exclude two contested clauses as a “minority” agreement.

  “This is a minority rule that we defeated in 1994; who is Solidarity representing? They represent a minority of white Afrikaans speakers. They are not even speaking for the majority of Afrikaans speakers.”  

SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila said there should be no schools labelled as “Afrikaans schools” but schools should incorporate languages.

“We should not allow a situation in this country where we have schools that are recognised as Afrikaans schools. Our schools must be our schools,” he said.

“In this campaign we see there is a Solidarity movement and AfriForum. They are trying to defend the Afrikaans schools, so South African children who are not Afrikaans cannot go to those particular schools and only one language can be taught at those schools.

“We cannot accept that. In our country language teachers should be provided with the number of students speaking various languages. That is the task of the school; not to reject students on the basis they won't be taught in a particular language.”

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