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Legal teams on standby as Ramaphosa hands over Bela Act implementation to Gwarube

Legal teams on standby as Ramaphosa hands over Bela Act implementation to Gwarube
Kristin Engel
By Kristin Engel
22 Dec 2024
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All eyes (and legal teams) are on Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, now tasked with setting out the norms and standards for the full implementation of the Bela Act in 2025.

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube is set to lead the implementation of the controversial Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (Bela Act), following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Friday, 20 December 2024, that he would sign a Presidential Proclamation to bring the Act into operation immediately.

The President’s announcement was accepted by all the parties involved in the Government of National Unity’s Clearing House Mechanism’s task team – set up for parties to come to an agreement over contested sections of the Act, particularly Clauses 4 and 5, which relate to language and admission policies.

Read more: Bela Act report is with Ramaphosa, says Mashatile, as consultation deadline arrives

The minister said that the most immediate steps were now to ensure that they had “guidelines, norms and standards and regulations” in place that would give legal clarity to the Act. This is what the legal teams at AfriForum and Solidarity will be keeping a keen eye on as we head into 2025.

Gwarube said that the timelines for implementing these would be set by her, and noted that these did take time.

“I want to make it abundantly clear that this Act will be implemented and its implementation will be led by me.

“This implementation will be done in a manner that protects the rights of all our children and all our schools from victimisation in any form, and at all times,” Gwarube said in a statement on Saturday following a media briefing in Parliament on the next steps on the Bela Act.

Legal teams at the ready


The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) expressed relief and gratitude after Ramaphosa’s announcement on the impending full implementation of the Bela Act.

“We are happy that the attempts of right-wing formations to manipulate the law for the benefit of a select few were unsuccessful. The integrity of the Act has been preserved, ensuring it serves the educational needs of all learners,” Sadtu said in a statement.

The Act empowers provincial education departments to have the final authority to determine school language and admission policies. Sadtu said that it fully supported this provision, as some school governing bodies had previously used these policies to unjustly exclude learners from schools.

Read more: Bela Bill seeks to bring SA’s education system in line with Constitution, say civil society bodies

Sadtu further anticipates that Gwarube will establish the necessary regulations and policies to facilitate the implementation of the Act, and said the norms and standards were in place and would be adjusted to align with the Act.

Also welcoming this was John Steenhuisen, Democratic Alliance leader and Minister of Agriculture, who said in a statement that this outcome was a “win-win compromise” from the negotiations in the Clearing House Mechanism’s task team — with the DA’s Siviwe Gwarube now tasked with developing regulations as well as norms and standards that would govern the Act.

Steenhuisen said this included contentious sections around language and admissions. 

“The DA remains determined to defend the existing right to mother-tongue education and expand it to increasing numbers of learners in South Africa. Our insistence that the contested sections of the Bela Act can only be implemented with sufficient guardrails put in place under a DA Minister has been vindicated,” he said.

Legal action may still be on the horizon for the Solidarity Movement, including Solidarity, AfriForum and the Solidarity School Support Centre (SOS), as they await the regulations, norms and standards to be released and the President’s proclamation to be gazetted.

They said that despite the President’s announcement on Friday, the Act could not be implemented immediately as the controversial clauses 4 and 5 of the  Bela Act could not be implemented until Gwarube established a timeline and developed the necessary norms, standards, and regulations.

Read more: Bela Bill will immediately be taken to court if signed into law, says powerful lobby group

Solidarity, AfriForum and the Solidarity School Support Centre’s legal teams have already been instructed to thoroughly evaluate the final proclamation. They will assess the constitutional validity of the Bela Act, provide input on the proposed norms and standards, and stand ready to act if any official tries to force schools to implement sections 4 and 5 at this stage.

“Our litigation has been in preparation, one can say, from 2017 (when the Bill was first introduced). But the following weeks will be very important to see what the details are. What are the details of the proclamation, what are the steps that the minister is taking, and lastly how does the department deal with the issues,” Werner Human, operational head of the Solidarity Movement, told Daily Maverick.

This was echoed by Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum. Kriel said that at this stage, they were waiting to see what the proclamation published in the Government Gazette would state, and when they saw that, “Our legal team will be ready to take it on.” 

But at this moment, Kriel said legal action would be premature, “Let’s hope the publication is in line with legal norms.”

Kriel said that what they believed was more likely to happen would be that they would have to go to court against officials who were abusing the Bela Act.

“Any official who tries to implement sections 4 and 5 before the Minister completes her work will be acting unlawfully. The Solidarity Movement, including Solidarity, AfriForum and the Solidarity School Support Centre (SOS), will challenge any form of intimidation against schools in court,” the organisations said in a statement.

Human believed that the President’s language in his statement about the Bela law was vague and appeared to be an attempt to appease all parties. He said it was unusual for the President to promulgate the law while leaving its implementation to the minister.

“The Solidarity Movement reserves their right to challenge the proclamation in court, depending on how it is published in the Government Gazette. We will also consider challenging certain elements of the Bela Act in court,” the movement said

Implementation


The minister’s legal team has been instructed to immediately develop guidelines that will be sent to all public schools and provincial education departments by the end of January 2025.

“These guidelines will support School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and provincial education departments in implementing certain sections of the Bela Act. This is important for harmony and clarity in the sector,” she said.

Read more: Gwarube’s Nedlac Bela Act deal moot while consultations continue, insist Ramaphosa, Mashatile

Gwarube has instructed her department to continue the process of developing draft regulations, norms and standards, to be published for public comment within the next six months by June 2025.

“Much has been said about this piece of legislation and at times it has regrettably been used as a political football. I now want to make it clear that the time for that is over,” said the minister.

Gwarube stated that the “weaponising” of this legislation for political means would not be tolerated and that mother tongue education was proven to assist learners in achieving good learning outcomes.

“It is important therefore that this Act is not used to undermine any language that is selected for teaching and learning. All 13 official languages are protected by our Constitution,” she said.

Three months of consultation


When Ramaphosa signed the Act in September, he suspended the contentious clauses for three months. Here’s the timeline:

  • On 13 September 2024, the President signed the Bela Act into law, with its role set to transform the education system to align with the Constitution and ensure equitable access to quality education for all children. This was met with major upheaval from parties within the GNU and outside organisations, disagreeing with contentious sections of the Act.

  • Recognising contention over clauses related to admission and language policies, the President delayed the implementation of the Bela Act by three months. This period was to allow time for all parties in the GNU to get on the same page and come to an agreement on the implementation of the Act.

  • Three-month deliberation period: Since September, parties in government, stakeholders and other entities held talks and made representations both supporting and opposing the contentious sections of the Act. The GNU clearing-house mechanism, chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, evaluated these discussions and prepared a final report.

  • From the final report, which Ramaphosa received last week, the President said that the GNU clearing house mechanism recommended full implementation of the Bela Act without returning it to Parliament for amendments over contentious sections – clauses 4 and 5. This decision was endorsed by leaders of the GNU parties in a meeting with the President on Friday.

  • Full implementation under way: Later on Friday, the President announced he would be signing a Presidential Proclamation to bring the Bela Act into full operation immediately. The Minister of Basic Education was instructed to oversee implementation, including the preparation of norms, standards, and regulations – particularly concerning the preparedness of the system for universal Grade R access. DM

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