Last week President Cyril Ramaphosa sat down for dinner with leaders of all 10 parties which had signed up for the ANC-led government of national unity (GNU). I would have loved to be there. Not for the scrumptious dinner and delectable wines from the fair Cape, but rather to stand behind the politicians, like a waiter at one of those royal balls in Bridgerton, with the freedom to walk around the table and knock their thick heads together every three minutes.
It is three months into the GNU, and they are already making threats of walking out or collapsing it. Surely someone in the room, or their lackeys (we have 32 cabinet ministers and 43 deputies, remember, so there are many without real jobs), should have anticipated there would be areas of contention, and begun to discuss ways to ring-fence these to ensure we don’t get the jitters that rumbled through the country last week.
When the ANC and the DA sat down to hammer out a deal in June, both parties knew they were worlds apart on the National Health Insurance Bill. They have been at opposite ends for the 17 years since the programme was adopted by the ANC at its 2007 conference.
Same with the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act. It is no secret that many constituencies, and Afrikaner interest groups in particular, have been hot under the collar about some of its proposals.
Now, the Bela Act is a good initiative. In the heat of its passage, its many good bits have been ignored. It aims to formalise an extra year of schooling for children, for example, bringing South Africa in line with international norms. For those of us who felt the government had lost control of key aspects of schools, it streamlines government intervention where needed.
But, and this is a big but, there are many contentious issues in the law, key among them language and control of admission. In the present iteration of the law, signed by Ramaphosa last week, clauses 4 and 5 strip school governing bodies and parents of the power to decide on the language and admission policy of schools, placing it in the hands of provincial education heads.
The point is to learn to prepare for the storm and not be caught out when it arrives
Have some sympathy for the ANC here. Language policy was used as a tool for discrimination for ages in South Africa. That does not, on the other hand, absolve the ANC of its failure to build schools of excellence where they are needed.
The ANC should be ashamed that black parents are still trying — 30 years after democracy dawned — to get their children into Hoërskool Hoenderhuis in areas far from their homes (because they believe, they know, that these schools are better) instead of Seaparankwe High in their neighbourhood. There can be no greater failure than this.
By last week, when Ramaphosa announced he would be signing the bill on Friday, DA leader John Steenhuisen was making threats: “If the president continues to ride roughshod over these objections, he is endangering the future of the government of national unity and destroying the good faith on which it was based.”
It should not have come to this. I can understand if some new initiative put strain on the GNU, but a bill that’s been trundling through the system for more than five years should not be leading to threats. It should have been foreseen and averted right from the birth of the GNU, particularly as Ramaphosa had appointed the DA’s Siviwe Gwarube to the education ministry.
The point is to learn to prepare for the storm and not be caught out when it arrives. The GNU statement of intent signed in June anticipated this. Clause 20 reads: “The parties to the GNU shall also establish dispute resolution or deadlock breaking mechanisms, in instances where sufficient consensus is not reached. Parties should raise disputes within the mechanisms created for this purpose.”
That these measures had not been put in place when Bela came along shows that neither Ramaphosa nor Steenhuisen has seriously considered the potholes in their way. If they do not fix this swiftly, the GNU project will be over before it has achieved anything.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.