Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Council Chairperson, Helen Zille says two clauses of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act are part of a revenge project against Afrikaans.
This comes after Deputy President, Paul Mashatile said President Cyril Ramaphosa was set to announce the outcome of the government of national unity’s (GNU) discussions on the BELA Act.
Zille says parallel-medium streams at schools are used as an excuse for eradicating Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.
She says, “So we’ve seen that at schools that have had parallel- medium streams, the school has very quickly turned to become only English. Same thing at universities. Stellenbosch used to be an Afrikaans-speaking university in a majority Afrikaans speaking province with a majority of Afrikaans speakers who are not white. Stellenbosch also said they were going to get parallel –medium programme going, English and Afrikaans well of course now it’s only English. Exactly the same thing at the University of Free State (UFS), Exactly the same thing at the University of Pretoria (UP). Basically it’s used as a means of eradicating Afrikaans.”
Zille says despite the disagreements with the African National Congress (ANC) on the BELA Act, negotiations around the two clauses have been constructive.
She says, “I think everyone was doing their best to find a win-win solution and I think that there are win-win solutions on the table. We are really working very hard to make the conflict resolution mechanisms of the GNU work because it’s essential that they work if the GNU is to succeed.”
“ We obviously are not going to agree with everything that the ANC wants or does or ANC policy. After all, we opposed them in the election and they can’t govern without us now, and so what we have to do is also service our voters in the government of national unity,” Zille adds.
VIDEO: DA vows to fight implementation of BELA Act:
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