With an eye to fending off potential legal challenge, MPs across the political spectrum agreed to pause work on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill on Tuesday, to review the thousands of public submissions that were not considered before they began their line-by-line consideration of the draft legislation.
Earlier in August, it emerged that up to 9,500 emailed submissions had not been scrutinised by the team that analysed public input on the bill for parliament’s basic education committee. Opposition MPs warned that ignoring public input left the legislation vulnerable to legal challenge, as the Constitutional Court has repeatedly thrown out Acts of parliament for failing to conduct a meaningful public participation process.
The committee consequently sought counsel from parliament’s legal advisers, which provided a written opinion that was discussed in Tuesday’s meeting.
Parliamentary legal adviser Phumelele Ngema told MPs that while parliament had broad discretion to determine how it conducted its public participation process, all public submissions must be considered and be seen to influence the deliberations of the committee.
“People have the right to be engaged, and whatever they bring forward must be heard and must be seen to be considered by [the committee],” she said.
Committee chair Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba ruled that the committee would pause work on the bill for parliamentary staff to consider the unread submissions and report back on the issues they raised.
“What we want is to be guided by the inputs the public has made,” she said.
Ngema assured MPs that clauses 4 and 5 of the Bela bill, which give provincial heads of education final approval of the language and admission policies set by a school governing body, were in line with the Constitution.
The bill has triggered intense public debate, as it proposes wide-ranging reforms that include closer regulation of home schooling. It also proposes extending compulsory schooling from grade 1 to grade R, a measure the education department told MPs would require an additional R17bn a year to be added to the budget.
Earlier in August, MPs and the education department agreed that the bill’s proposals allowing alcohol sales on school premises for fund-raising purposes should be scrapped. They also agreed to remove a clause requiring every member of a school governing body to disclose their financial interests.
Once the bill has been formally adopted by the basic education committee, it will be referred to the National Assembly for the second reading debate, where it is expected to be passed by the ANC majority. It will then be referred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
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