New education law in South Africa could lead to the collapse of government

The Basic Education Laws Amendment Act would destroy the small percentage of well-functioning schools in South Africa if implemented.

I recently recorded an episode on The Pioneer Podcast, to document the extent to which the education system in South Africa has collapsed since the ANC’s advent to power in 1994. There are many factors contributing to this collapse, including the following:

1.        High levels of teacher absenteeism in government schools

2.        Mismanagement of schools

3.        Disruptions by unions

4.        Corruption

5.        Lack of basic service delivery from the South African government, such as the delivery of textbooks

6.        The fact that too many politicians in South Africa simply do not see education as a priority

There is also an ideological dimension to the problem. Political discourse in South Africa has largely been built on the idea that white people – and the Afrikaner minority in particular – ought to be blamed for everything that is wrong with the country. Former president Jacob Zuma even stated this explicitly when he said that all of South Africa’s problems started on the day Jan van Riebeeck (on behalf of the Dutch East India Company) set foot ashore in 1652. Therefore, recognizing that the education system is failing – and especially that it is failing as a result of factors such as the abovementioned – implies a recognition that sometimes the white minority cannot be blamed and that there are internal problems that need to be addressed.

However, the ANC’s response to the education crisis is to attempt to implement a piece of legislation that will do nothing to uplift underperforming schools, but will do much to destroy the quality of education in high performing schools. The Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (BELA) aims to erode the authority vested in school governing bodies (elected by the parents) to determine admissions and language policies, and to have that authority vested in the government.

The motivation behind this is no secret. This is because the ANC government seeks to open “access” to these well-functioning schools by forcing the Afrikaans schools to become English, and also to force them to take in children from townships and other areas in which there are no functioning schools. Ideologically, the advocates of BELA have made it clear that they harbor a hatred for Afrikaans as a language, and that they wish to convert Afrikaans schools into English schools. Ironically, English is forced onto children under the banner of “decolonization”.

But equally important, statistically, this is happening because the number of children in South Africa is increasing while the number of schools is declining. A recent study by the Solidarity Research Institute found that the number of school-going children has increased by 7.4% between 2009 and 2023, while the number of schools has decreased by 8.8%. As a result, the average number of children per school has increased from 479 in 2009 to 564 in 2023.Thus it is abundantly clear that schools in South Africa are under immense pressure. Various studies have found that more than 80% of schools in South Africa are dysfunctional. Forcing the remaining 20% of schools to exceed their capacity and take in the children that were supposed to go to the 80% dysfunctional schools will only worsen the problem. And then we have not even touched on the necessity of building more schools.

This is why the various institutions of the Solidarity Movement, several opposition parties, and a variety of educational institutions will be participating in a protest march on 5 November 2024. The march is anticipated to be attended by several thousand people. During the march a memorandum will be presented to the Presidency of South Africa, clearly stating that BELA is not only rejected by the educational society;  it is also unimplementable.

If the ANC persists in its pursuit of implementing this law, the Solidarity Movement has already announced that it will call on opposition parties currently forming part of the coalition government to reconsider their position in the Government of National Unity (GNU). It seems that the ANC will have to choose between implementing this law and presiding over a crumbling government (the ANC does not have sufficient support to govern alone), or keeping the GNU intact while reconsidering its position in terms of BELA.

If the GNU reduced opposition parties to becoming rubber stamps for the ANC to implement its destructive policies, then it would be better not to have a GNU at all.

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The Afrikaner Foundation works to promote international cooperation with and support for the Afrikaner people, for the Afrikaner people to take up their rightful place in the international community once again, and to contribute with a particular focus on the preservation of the Western tradition.