Yesterday, the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill was to be voted on in Parliament. However, this item was removed from the parliamentary order paper, apparently because the ANC could not muster the required 2/3 majority.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill seeks to remove the concurrent competence of provinces to manage Further Education and Training (FET) colleges and Adult Basic Education (ABET) institutions, and place it in the hands of national government.

The DA is opposed to this amendment, and will be voting against it when it comes before the House in the next quarter. The Constitution should be amended only if there is a compelling reason to do so. In this case, we do not believe a compelling reason has been put forward.

We also believe that, given the national department’s failure to manage the situation satisfactorily under the existing agreement with the provincial governments, there is no benefit to the students either. It will also impede the implementation of programmes geared towards specific regional education needs, as provinces are better placed to assess and respond to their unique needs than the national government.

Two reasons for the amendment were given during meetings of the justice and constitutional development portfolio committee: First, that there was some concern that provincial legislation could come into conflict with national legislation. Since no such case has yet arisen, and there is a provision contained in section 146 of the Constitution that provides a mechanism to deal with such conflicts, this reason holds no water.

Secondly, it was put forward that there are problems with the management of FET colleges and ABET institutions in some of the provinces. Since there are similar problems at national level, this reason, too, falls by the wayside. Trying to justify the amendment of the Constitution because some provinces cannot run their colleges efficiently is disingenuous at best.

Clearly, the two reasons given for the proposed amendment are spurious. The question that therefore needs to be asked is: What is the real reason behind this amendment to the Constitution? It creates a dangerous precedent that could affect other concurrent competencies, such as health services or public transport, and reinforce the ruling party’s drive towards centralisation.