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In reaction to a media statement issued yesterday (11 March 2024) by the Department of Basic Education, AfriForum states that the Department should not underestimate the public’s intelligence or try to mislead them with contrived accusations.

In the statement, the Department claims that the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (the so-called BELA Bill) has no agenda against a specific language, but will actually promote mother-language education and more efficient administration of schools. They also accuse those who oppose the Bill of being opposed to diversity in schools.

According to Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s Head of Cultural Affairs, several ANC members at provincial and national government levels have stated explicitly that the existence of single-medium Afrikaans schools is unacceptable. “Public schools constantly bear witness to departmental pressure to Anglicise, even though it has been repeatedly proven that dual or parallel-medium educational institutions in the country end up becoming monolingual English institutions. To play the exclusivity card, is ridiculous. Afrikaans is the one language that is not predominantly spoken by a single community. Although Afrikaans schools are some of the most transformed schools in the country, they are also the schools most often being subjected to false accusations of exclusion,” she adds. 

Bailey is of the opinion that the Department is probably shocked by the large number of individuals and institutions who oppose the BELA Bill and in their submissions emphasise the department’s many failures. “The lack of infrastructure, the catastrophic delivery of learning materials, the lack of response to communication from schools and governing bodies, as well as other examples of maladministration by the national and provincial structures of the department are mentioned in submissions over and over again. The politicians who are trying to get the Bill passed at all costs, are now trying to paint those with strong views on quality mother-language education as the scapegoats, while presenting themselves as the heroes, even though they are the main reason for the country’s approximately 80% dysfunctional schools. Legislation cannot fix the Department’s dysfunctionality, and the public is not so gullible as to believe the Department’s media statement,” she concludes.

Issued by AfriForum