South Africa’s grand coalition government has formed a task team to address concerns raised by the Democratic Alliance (DA) regarding the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.
This comes after various party leaders in the presumed Government of National Unity (GNU) met on Wednesday to discuss the issue of the BELA Bill, which contains two clauses that have been the centre of debate.
According to the Deputy President’s Office, the meeting was attended by most parties that participate in this grand coalition.
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“The meeting noted the need to resolve the matter within the three months that President Cyril Ramaphosa has allocated.
“After an extensive engagement, the clearing house mechanism agreed on the establishment of a small team to work on the concerns as raised by some parties.”
The team comprises Deputy Minister Andries Nel; Dr Cornelius Mulder from the Freedom Front Plus; Brett Herron from the GOOD Party; Helen Zille from the DA and Mdumiseni Ntuli from the African National Congress (ANC).
In September, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Bill into law but delayed by three months the implementation of clauses 4 and 5, which deal with school admissions and language, to make room for more discussion and deliberations after it was opposed by the DA.
According to the Deputy President’s Office, the team has since been given two weeks to work and report to the clearing house mechanism.
The GNU clearing house mechanism was established by President Ramaphosa last month to address policy disagreements within the 10-member GNU.
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