South Africa’s DA Says Education Bill Poses Threat to Coalition

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s second-biggest political party warned that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan to approve changes to education legislation poses a threat to the nation’s coalition government.

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Ramaphosa will sign the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill into law on Friday, the presidency said in a statement on Wednesday. The Democratic Alliance said that if he proceeds, it will violate the “letter and spirit” of the joint statement that formed the basis of the government of national unity.

During negotiations to form the coalition government, “the DA made it clear that the BELA Bill was unacceptable to us in its current form, because it has constitutional implications for the right to mother-tongue education, among other issues,” the party said in a statement. It urged Ramaphosa to send the bill back to parliament for “a few simple amendments to bring it in line with the constitution.”

The row over the bill is the first sign of a crack in the coalition government that the African National Congress — South Africa’s biggest party — was forced to agree to with the centrist DA and other smaller rivals after losing its parliamentary majority in elections in May. Part of the accord to form the administration included a proposal for a dispute-resolution mechanism, which has yet to be implemented.

DA leader John Steenhuisen, who also serves as agriculture minister in the South African cabinet, called for an urgent meeting with Ramaphosa before the bill is signed.

“The DA regards this issue in the most serious light, and I will convey to the president the destructive implications it holds for the future of the GNU,” he said.

Ramaphosa is happy with the way the GNU is functioning, and will host a dinner on Wednesday night with its members to discuss the formulation of a dispute-resolution mechanism, Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for the presidency, told reporters in Cape Town. The president can only reject a law that had been passed by parliament if he had concerns about its constitutionality and there were avenues for aggrieved parties to raise any objections, including the courts, he said.

“It is disturbing that whenever there is a dispute, you will hear threats being made to the stability of the GNU,” Magwenya said. “The GNU must remain stable, it must remain united.”

Labor union Solidarity is one of the fiercest critics of the BELA Bill. It has expressed concern that the legislation will confer powers on the education department to determine the language policy and admission criteria of government schools, and may result in an end to Afrikaans being taught at those institutions.

Signing the bill would be an “act of aggression,” Cape Town-based news website Netwerk24 quoted Solidarity Chief Executive Officer Dirk Herman as saying in an open letter to Ramaphosa earlier this week.

--With assistance from Rene Vollgraaff, Paul Vecchiatto and Mike Cohen.

(Updates with comments from president’s spokesman starting in seventh paragraph.)

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