Greater Afrikaans community decides on day of protest against BELA
A day of mass protest will be held in less than four weeks from now against the Basic Education Act (BELA) to send out the strongest message of resistance against the controversial articles in this Act.
Dozens of organisations representing the larger Afrikaans community accepted a resolution today during a BELA Action Summit in Pretoria to announce a day of protest against the BELA articles on language and admission policy.
Members of various Afrikaans organisations, institutions of the Solidarity Movement, members of school governing bodies, teachers, parents and advocates of mother tongue education from all communities are planning to hold a protest march in Pretoria on Tuesday 5 November to air their concern about BELA.
The decision to take protest action is among several resolutions that were accepted at the BELA Action Summit led by Solidarity, AfriForum and the Solidarity Support Centre for Schools (SCS).
Other steps that have been jointly decided upon, include:
– to proceed with court action if BELA is implemented in its current format;
– to ask the DA and FF+ to suspend their participation in the government of national unity if BELA is implemented in its current format;
– to protect Afrikaans schools and Afrikaans in schools with everything we have; and
– to promote mother tongue education in general.
Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, says these resolutions are an important moment in yet another battle of survival for Afrikaans.
“This battle has been going on for two centuries. It has been exactly 200 years since Lord Charles Somerset’s directive that English would henceforth be the only language in the Cape Colony’s schools. Now we once again have a government that wants to anglicise Afrikaans schools to achieve political goals,” said Buys.
Leon Fourie, chief executive of the SCS, says representatives of around 50 stakeholder organisations and of more than 70 schools attended the Action Summit, and accepted the resolutions.
“The Act centralises power in the hands of the state and deprives communities of their right to have a say in schools. By limiting the powers of governing bodies, communities’ schools are exposed to a greater risk of political interference,” Fourie said.
Kallie Kriel, AfriForum’s chief executive, says that these resolutions that have been taken are critically necessary, given the serious implications of the legislation.
“Afrikaans schools play a key role in Afrikaans cultural communities, and for this reason, the attack on Afrikaans schools and children is an act of aggression that threatens the continued existence of our cultural communities. We will fight BELA’s anti-Afrikaans sections with everything we have,” Kriel said.
According to Dr Dirk Hermann, Solidarity’s chief executive, the decision to organise a protest march was not taken lightly.
“Like previous generations, we must stand up for Afrikaans education and the important cultural transmission that comes with it. We cannot allow that in a hundred years from now people will look back reproachfully, saying that the generation of 2024 had forsaken its descendants,” Hermann said.
More information about the day of protest will be announced soon.
The Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, was also present at the summit. She said during her speech that the solution to the differences regarding Bela lies in dialogue, cooperation and mutual respect.
She also repeated several times that she believes the differences regarding Bela are not insurmountable.
She also acknowledged that the autonomy of governing bodies over admission and language policies has always been a core pillar of basic education in South Africa.
Organisations and political parties present during the signing of the resolutions included the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS), the South African Teachers Union (SAOU), the DA, FF+ and traditional leaders.
