AfriForum up in arms against Bela bill

A handful of AfriForum Youth members picketed against the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (Bela) at the Union Buildings on Monday, April 15.

During the picket, members handed over a memorandum of demands to the office of the presidency, in which they vehemently oppose the bill’s implementation.

It aims to amend certain sections of the South African Schools Act (Sasa), which focus on administrative and management processes at school level.

The members wore signs around their necks which read “I am a donkey”.

This was a reference to the treatment that Afrikaans-speaking children received from colonial British authorities after the Anglo-Boer War.

Speaking Afrikaans at schools was labelled to be a shame at that time and some children had signs placed on them that read “donkey” or “I am a donkey”.

The picketers had a cut-out poster of President Cyril Ramaphosa draped in old-fashioned British clothes with a top hat and twirling moustache.

The picketers believe the president is acting like a colonial ruler through the implementation of the bill.

AfriForum wants the National Council of Provinces to revise the Basic Education Laws Amendments and allow student governing bodies (SGBs) to determine and authorise the language policy in their designated schools themselves.

Spokesperson for the group, Louis Boshoff, said the bill is a threat to Afrikaans education.

“If people like Panyaza Lesufi or ANC government officials are responsible for the language policies of Afrikaans schools, they will take away the language from these schools. This has a great effect on the future of the entire Afrikaans community in South Africa,” Boshoff said.

Boshoff said the main problem they have with the bill is that it removes language policy authorities
from SGBs and gives it to the provincial education departments. This move he feels is politically motivated and not in the interest of the learners and parents who use these schools.

“We believe that the richness of South African cultural diversity is manifested in different mother languages. When children learn the language of their mothers and are educated in those languages, they can make better contributions to society,” Boshoff added.

AfriForum Youth are asking that the bill either be adapted to remove the language section, or be scrapped entirely and are calling on the president to push it forward. The group wants their memorandum addressed before the National Council of Provinces decides on the bill.

AfriForum media manager Ilze Nieuwoudt said learning in one’s home language has proven to have numerous advantages and the bill threatens this.

“When children receive education in their home language, it gives them a head start in life. Schools need to focus more on teaching home languages rather than imposing English on all learners, especially in the younger grades,” Nieuwoudt said.

She encouraged parents and anyone opposing the bill to visit the AfriForum website and support the initiative.

AfriForum stated that should their memorandum go ignored and the bill be implemented, they would take the matter to the Constitutional Court.

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