The Solidarity Movement announced on Thursday that it has reached a settlement with government over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill dispute, noting that the controversial sections in the Bill will no longer be implemented on December 13.

In September, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the BELA Bill into law, despite a significant degree of public rejection and concern over its constitutionality.

He placed on hold clauses four and five of the Bill for three months to find solutions to the concerns around them.

The parties to the dispute were Solidarity, the Presidency and the Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube.

The settlement also confirmed the different roles of the Minster of Basic Education, which is to ensure the proper implementation of the BELA Act, including making recommendations to the President on the commencement arrangements for the Act; and to also ensure that the implementation of the Act is supported by appropriate national regulations, national norms and standards and/or national policies.

The settlement also provided for further developments on mother-tongue education that extend beyond just Afrikaans.

“Norms and standards and national policies and regulations must first be developed which will, among other things, determine that schools which are running at their full capacity may not receive instructions to change their language and admission policy,” said Solidarity Movement.

Regarding language and admission policies, the movement said the school’s immediate environment or its feeder zone, and not the larger education district, must be considered.

“The execution of the recommendations does not exclude the possibility that there may be a need for future legislative amendments to Section 4 and/or 5 of the BELA Act. This will all form part of a process in which the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, will make comprehensive recommendations to President Cyril Ramaphosa for his due consideration,” the movement explained.

It also assured that the settlement does not affect the process of the Government of National Unity (GNU) or any other processes regarding BELA.

“The settlement is the outcome of various processes. This includes talks with President Ramaphosa, negotiations with political parties, including the ANC, the DA and the FF+, the big march from the Voortrekker Monument to Freedom Park, talks with traditional leaders, a process at PanSAT and the Nedlac process,” explained chairperson of the Solidarity Movement Flip Buys.

Solidarity CE Dr Dirk Hermann pointed out that although the settlement was a breakthrough, further hard work remained.