AfrForum wants parties in GNU to oppose Bela Act
AfriForum has requested the DA and FF Plus to reconsider their participation in the GNU should the clause in the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act that it says threatens the continued existence of Afrikaans in schools, be implemented unchanged.
A Polity report says this follows internal emergency discussions held by the organisation's board of directors, in reaction to what it calls a group of ‘anti-Afrikaans activists’ in the ANC, Gauteng Government, and even politically driven senior officials in the National Department of Education.
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said this group was acting ‘contemptuously’ towards President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to create an opportunity for further deliberation on the Bela Act’s language clauses.
He said this group was ‘openly out to derail constructive discussions and steamroll’ the implementation of the Bela Act in its current format and try to make any co-operation within the GNU impossible.
Kriel highlighted that AfriForum’s concerns arose after Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Education MEC Matome Chiloane indicated that there was ‘no place’ for a single-medium Afrikaans school.
He pointed out that the hope that the GNU had ushered in a new era of co-operation would be dashed if it turned out that the ANC had simply ‘co-opted the DA and FF Plus to blindly follow ANC policies and even implement draconian policies such as contained in the Bela Act with diligence.’
He indicated that should the Act be fully implemented under the GNU, all those serving in the GNU would be complicit in the Act’s ‘assault’ on the survival of Afrikaans communities.
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