PRETORIA, Sept 13 (Askume) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defended the stability of his coalition government on Friday as a row over a controversial education bill exposed non-state tensions between his party and its key coalition partners in the country.
Ramaphosa addressed the media hours after the bill was passed. The bill angered the Democratic Alliance (DA), an ally of the African National Congress (ANC). The debate centered on the integration of teaching in African languages in schools.
“We come from different histories … and are driven by different ideological considerations, but … a government of national unity is durable,” Ramaphosa said, dismissing fears it could lead to the collapse of the government in May.
He said: “I have full confidence in the stability of GNU because it is scary to even think about anything else.”
Part of the controversial education bill, which gives officials the power to approve school board language policies, is aimed at preventing discrimination.
The ANC said students were excluded from some schools because of their language, which it said was used for racial exclusion – an indirect reference to Afrikaans, the language of South Africa’s first white inhabitants, which was promoted by the white minority rulers under apartheid.
The DA said the bill violates South Africans’ right to education and learning in their mother tongue. The party is trying to change its image among the white minority, many of whom speak Afrikaans as their first language.
Ramaphosa previously said the bill would “address long-standing challenges in our education system” but the DA has vowed to fight it in court. Earlier this week he said the bill violates the consensus-building principles of the national unity government and puts the coalition at risk .
“It’s mostly about using Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, which is seen as an attempt to exclude people who don’t speak Afrikaans,” said Andre Duvenhage, a political science professor at Northwestern University.
“In a way this law is about opening these schools to everybody,” he told Askume.
The Basic Education Act Amendment (BELA) bill makes one year of pre-school education compulsory, strengthens the ban on corporal punishment in schools and regulates home education.
Ramaphosa said he would review the most controversial parts of the bill for three months and move forward if no solution was found.
