Cape Town — Parliament is set to continue processing the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill, despite objections and rejections from opposition.
The National Council of Province’s (NCOP) education and technology, sports, arts and culture committee received a briefing on Wednesday from its legal advisor on the bill before it was adopted, with chairperson, Mamgase Nchaleleng, saying someone needed to ensure all processes were constitutional, accoring to the Bill, in the same way as Heads of Department (HODs), EWN reported.
“This is to ensure somebody is responsible to ensure that there are not going to be any discriminatory policies in our basic education and training schools.” Nchaebeleng said.
The Democratic Alliance’s basic education spokesperson, Bax Nodada, said the DA is against the BELA Bill because it will disempower schools by centralising school admission policies.
According to SABC News, the legal division of Parliament have most of the public submissions on the Bill have rejected the proposed changes. The NCOP completed its public consultation process in all nine provinces and the parliamentary legal services was tasked with looking at various concerns raised during the public submissions and give feedback to the Select Committee on Education.
Senior legal advisor Phumela Ngema says it is however difficult to identify the reasons behind the rejections made.
“How does the views suggest that the DBE, the legislature and the National Council of Provinces and the first house assembly which has already processed this Bill and as the select committee is the extension of the NCOP, how has these structures of government failed, or the provincial legislatures failed to comply with the constitutional obligations and the law that I have set out. I think that is the main question that we are trying to answer today to assist the committee.” Ngema said.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
