Democratic Alliance (DA) federal council chairperson Helen Zille has strongly criticised two contentious clauses of the Bela Act.
Bela Act clauses part of a ‘major revenge project against Afrikaans’ – DA’s Helen ZilleDA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille. Picture: Gallo Images/Netwerk24/Jaco Marais
Clause 4 of the Bela Act gives the Department of Basic Education more authority over the admission policy and clause 5 requires school governing bodies to submit the school’s language policy to the provincial head of department for approval.on Monday, Zille expressed deep concerns about the act’s potential to undermine language rights and school governance.
She quoted Education MEC Matome Chiloane as saying there was “no need for a single Afrikaans-speaking school in Gauteng” and Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s claim of “continuing the 1976 uprising” – a characterisation Zille strongly disputed as historically inaccurate. “For every one Afrikaans-medium school, there are 95 English-medium schools,” she pointed out, emphasising the vulnerability of Afrikaans education.
She highlighted previous experiences where dual-medium schools quickly transitioned to exclusively English, citing examples from universities like Stellenbosch, Pretoria and the University of the Free State.
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