“An education bill that would give South Africa’s government more control over white minority language schools is a threat to the country’s new government of national unity” the second largest political party said on Wednesday.
The bill seeks to give the government the power to determine language and admission policies in schools. In the current arrangement, school governing bodies consisting mostly of parents and community leaders determine these.
Critics describe the bill as a threat to single-language schools, particularly those in the Afrikaans language that is spoken by the country’s white, minority Afrikaner population and others.
South Africa has 12 official languages. While most schools use English as a medium of instruction from a certain age, some use Afrikaans, the language that developed among Dutch and other European colonial settlers in the 17th century.
Out of 23,719 public schools, at least 2,484 are Afrikaans-language schools, according to government figures.
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said he would meet President Cyril Ramaphosa before he signs the bill into law on Friday. One civil society group has said it would take legal action to oppose the bill once Ramaphosa signs it.
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