Note to editors: Please find attached Afrikaans and English soundbite by Willie Aucamp MP.
The Democratic Alliance welcomes the statement by Minister Gwarube, taking control of managing the timetable for the implementation of the BELA Act and ensuring that Norms, Standards and Regulations are in place to give clarity to the contested sections of the Act.
The DA also welcomes the fact that the Minister will not allow the existing rights to mother tongue education to be undermined by those who wish to abuse the BELA Act to eradicate Afrikaans single-medium schools, a right protected by the Constitution.
The purpose of the Norms, Standards and Regulations, will be to advance mother tongue for all language communities, not to make English the only language of instruction in schools.
It is highly ironic, that in the name of advancing mother tongue education, a faction of the ANC has been driving a strategy to introduce English language instruction in mother-tongue Afrikaans medium schools, without promoting in any way, education in other indigenous languages.
This approach constitutes an abuse of the BELA Act. The Lesufi strategy does not in any way advance mother-tongue education. It does precisely the opposite. It destroys mother tongue education where it currently exists, without advancing mother tongue education where it does not exist.
The DA will not accept this hidden agenda, and will expose it wherever it occurs.
We look forward to implementing this Act within the framework of the constitution, and will vigilantly guard against its abuse.
