Sadtu threatens to strike if BELA not implemented
The South African Democratic Teachers Union has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to meet Friday’s deadline and sign the two final clauses of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act into law.
Clause 4 will enable the Basic Education Department to instruct schools to enrol more pupils if there's a surplus in some.
Clause 5 allows provincial departments to amend schools' mother-tongue education policies only if the community around the school does not speak that language.
Ramaphosa signed the act into law in September but, due to opposition from the DA, delayed the implementation of clauses four and five for three months to allow for negotiations and solutions.
Sadtu’s spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, says they will take legal action and strike if the Bela Act is amended.
"The Bela Act has not been challenged in any court of law for its constitutionality nor declared unconstitutional by any court of law. There was no lawful, rational or constitutionally valid reason for not putting the two sections into operation.”
In September, Sadtu General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the union rejected the suspension of the two clauses.
"The BELA Bill needs to be implemented as a whole, as it is the fundamental right of our children and parents to ensure that our schools are integrated, democratised, and de-racialised.
"The congress has resolved that the president should lift that particular suspension so that the BELA Bill, as an act, now be implemented to address the issues of social cohesion, integration and transformation of our society.”
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