Ramaphosa accused of reneging on BELA Act agreements made at NEDLAC

JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa has been accused of reneging on the agreements made at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) regarding the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act.

On 27 November last year, the Presidency, Afriforum and the Solidarity Movement reached an agreement at NEDLAC for a phased approach to the contentious clauses of the BELA Act.

READ: AfriForum, Solidarity serve Ramaphosa and Gwarube with letter of demand over BELA Act

However, a few weeks later, Ramaphosa announced the BELA Act would be immediately implemented without any amendments.

Solidarity and Afriforum held a media briefing on Thursday, announcing their first legal steps to challenge parts of the act.

The agreement reached at NEDLAC was that clauses four and five of the BELA Act would be slowly phased in once government built enough administrative and financial capability.

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Clauses four and five shift the power of determining a school's language and admission policy from the school governing bodies to provincial government.

Solidarity movement spokesperson, Werner Human, said that President Cyril Ramaphosa had disregarded the NEDLAC agreement.

"It's not that the president and his powers are subject to the agreement but the contents of the agreement consider all the relevant legal considerations and that content is important when one determines what is rational and irrational."

The lobby groups have given the president and education minister ten days to respond to their letter of demands, failing which they will file an application in court.