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What’s South Africa’s new school language law and why is it controversial?

Published

1 year ago

September 18, 2024

What’s South Africa’s new school language law and why is it controversial?

A new education law in South Africa is dividing lawmakers and sparking angry emotions in a country with a complex racial and linguistic history.

Last Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) bill into law but suspended the implementation of two hotly contested sections for at least three months for further consultations among opposing government factions.

Authorities insist that the law will make education more equitable. Stark economic inequalities in South Africa have contributed to lower literacy and post-school opportunities for the country’s Black majority. By 2022, even though 34.7 percent of Black teenagers had completed secondary school – up from 9.4 percent in 1996 – only 9.3 percent of Black people had a tertiary education. By comparison, 39.8 percent of the white population had a tertiary education.

“The law that we are signing today further opens the doors of learning. It lays a firm foundation for learning from an early age … It will ensure young children are better prepared for formal schooling,” Ramaphosa said during the signing event in Pretoria.

But critics of the law, mainly from the Afrikaans-speaking community, argue that clauses strengthening the government’s oversight over school language and admission policies would threaten mother-tongue education.

Here’s what to know about BELA and why some groups disagree with parts of the law:

What’s BELA and why is it controversial?

The new amendment modifies older school laws in the country: the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998.

It includes new provisions, such as a ban on corporal punishment for children, jail terms for parents who fail to send their children to school, compulsory grade levels for children starting school, and increased scrutiny for homeschooling.

However, Sections 4 and 5, which regulate languages of instruction in school, and school admission policies, are causing upheaval among Afrikaans-speaking minority groups.

The clauses allow schools to develop and choose their languages of instruction out of South Africa’s 11 official languages, as well as their admissions policy. However, it also gives the National Department of Basic Education the final authority, allowing it to override any decisions. Until now, school boards had the highest authority on languages and admissions.

Authorities in the past have cited how some schools exclude children, especially from Black communities, based on their inability to speak Afrikaans as one reason for the policy update.

Following South Africa’s break from apartheid, Black parents were allowed to send their children to better-funded, previously white-only schools where Afrikaans was often the main instruction language.

Some Black parents, however, claimed their wards were denied placements because they did not speak Afrikaans. Accusations of racism in school placements continue to be an issue: in January 2023, scores of Black parents protested in front of the Laerskool Danie Malan, a school in Pretoria that largely uses Afrikaans and Setswana (another official African language), claiming their children were denied for “racist” reasons. However, the school authorities rejected the claim, and other Black parents confirmed to local media that their children attended the institution.

Members of the South African Teachers Union, the African National Congress, and the Congress of South African Students march against the language and admission policies at a majority Afrikaans-speaking school they claimed were discriminatory in 2018 [File: Gulshan Khan/AFP]

Why are some Afrikaans speakers upset over BELA?

Some Afrikaans speakers say the new law threatens their language and, by extension, their culture and identity. Afrikaans-speaking schools also accuse the authorities of pressuring them to instruct in English.

Afrikaans is a mixture of Dutch vernacular, German and native Khoisan languages, which developed in the 18th century. It is predominantly spoken in South Africa by about 13 percent of the 100 million population. They include people from the multiracial “coloured” community (50 percent) and white descendants of Dutch settlers (40 percent).

Some Black people (9 percent) and South African Indians (1 percent) also speak Afrikaans, particularly those who lived through apartheid South Africa, when the language was more widely used in business and schools. It is more commonly spoken in the Northern and Western Cape provinces.

Of a total of 23,719 public schools, 2,484 — more than 10 percent — use Afrikaans as their sole or second language of instruction, while the vast majority teach in English. Some Afrikaans speakers argue that giving locally elected officials more power to determine a school’s language will politicise the matter and could lead to fewer schools teaching in Afrikaans. Many also fault the section of the law that allows government officials to override admissions policy.

“There is only a government of national disunity,” one commenter posted on the website of the South African newspaper Daily Maverick on Friday about the divisions within the coalition Government of National Unity (GNU) that have emerged amid the language row.

“By opting to destroy Afrikaans and Afrikaans schools and universities, the ANC and Cyril are making a mockery of unity. This is what happens if the provincial department can unilaterally control the admission of learners and language mediums at schools,” the commenter said, referring to Ramaphosa and his party, the African National Congress (ANC).

Last week, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, who is the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-largest party in the GNU, condemned the government’s decision to move ahead with the bill despite reservations among the ANC’s coalition partners.

The politician, who is Afrikaner, also threatened a tit-for-tat response if the law is eventually signed as is.

“The DA will have to consider all of our options on the way forward … Any leader who tries to ride roughshod over their partners will pay the price – because a time will come when the shoe is on the other foot, and they will need the understanding of those same partners in turn,” he said.

Education Minister Siviwe Garube, a Black member of the DA, did not attend the signing ceremony in Pretoria in a show of defiance.

Youth day — Children at the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto observe the iconic image taken by photographer Sam Nzima on June 16, 1976, when apartheid police shot dead Black schoolchildren protesting against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in their schools [File: Themba Hadebe/AP Photo]

What is the history of school language controversies in South Africa?

Afrikaans is historically emotive in South Africa, dating back to British colonial rule.

To some, Afrikaans represents self-determination, but to many more, particularly in the Black community, it evokes memories of the brutal days of segregation and apartheid.

Originally, Afrikaans was regarded as an unsophisticated version of Standard Dutch. It was called “kitchen Dutch”, referencing the enslaved Cape populations who spoke it in the kitchen and to their settler masters. In the late 1800s, after the first and second Boer wars that saw Dutch settlers or “Boers” fight their British colonists and win independence, Afrikaans came to be regarded as a language of freedom for the white population. In 1925, it was adopted as an official language.

During the apartheid years, however, Afrikaans became synonymous with oppression for the majority Black population which faced the worst forms of subjugation under the system. Some scholars note (PDF) that the apartheid government uprooted Black families from urban areas to destitute self-governed “Bantustans” (homelands) partly based on their inability to speak the two official languages at the time, Afrikaans and English.

Most Black schools in South Africa at the time taught in English, as it was regarded as the language for Black emancipation. However, the government attempted to impose both English and Afrikaans as compulsory medium languages in schools starting from 1961.

That move ignited a series of student protests in June 1976 in the majority-Black community of Soweto, where the policy was meant to be implemented first. Between 176 and 700 people were killed when apartheid security forces used deadly force on schoolchildren in what is now known as the Soweto Uprising.

Apartheid authorities rescinded the language policy in July 1976. When Black schools were allowed to choose their medium of education, more than 90 percent opted for English. None chose the other African languages, such as Xhosa or Zulu, which the apartheid government had also pushed: it was seen as a measure to promote tribalism and divide the Black community. In addition to those, the country’s other official languages are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga and Ndebele.

What’s next?

Authorities say the different arms of government will debate Sections 4 and 5 for the next three months. However, barring a resolution, the law will fully be implemented as is, President Ramaphosa said.

Meanwhile, Afrikaner rights groups such as the AfriForum, have declared they will contest the decision in court. The group has been described as having “racist” leanings, although it denies this.

“Afrikaans has already been eroded in the country’s public universities in a similar way,” Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s cultural affairs head, said in a statement last week.

“The shrinking number of schools that still use Afrikaans as a language of instruction now is the next target. AfriForum is therefore preparing for both national and international legal action to oppose this,” she added.

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World

Video: Deadly Storm Causes Massive Flooding Across Gaza

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9 hours ago

December 12, 2025

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Video: Deadly Storm Causes Massive Flooding Across Gaza

new video loaded: Deadly Storm Causes Massive Flooding Across Gaza

Nearly 795,000 displaced people in Gaza were at risk of dangerous floodwaters, according to the United Nations. The heavy rain and strong winds flooded makeshift shelters and collapsed several buildings, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.

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World

Archaeologists uncover rare fresco of Jesus in town Pope Leo XIV recently visited

Published

11 hours ago

December 12, 2025

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Archaeologists uncover rare fresco of Jesus in town Pope Leo XIV recently visited

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Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered a fresco of a Roman-looking Jesus as the “Good Shepherd,” which is being hailed as one of the most important finds from Anatolia’s early Christian era.

The work of art was found in August in an underground tomb near the town of Iznik, where the Nicene Creed, a foundational statement of Christian belief, was adopted in A.D. 325. The tomb itself is believed to date back to the third century, when the area was still under the Roman Empire and Christians faced persecution.

POPE LEO XIV OPENS FIRST FOREIGN TRIP IN TURKEY WITH A VISIT TO CHRISTIANITY’S EARLY HEARTLANDS

Archaeologists clean and restore frescoes inside a 3rd-century tomb where a rare early Christian depiction of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” was discovered, in Iznik, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

The fresco shows a youthful, clean-shaven Jesus dressed in a toga and carrying a goat on his shoulders, according to The Associated Press, which was the first international media organization given access to the tomb. The outlet noted that researchers say the fresco represents one of the rare instances in Anatolia in which Jesus is portrayed with Roman attributes.

The lead archaeologist on the project believes the artwork could be the “only example of its kind in Anatolia,” the AP reported.

A fresco depicting Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” adorns the wall of a 3rd-century tomb in Hisardere, where archaeologists uncovered one of Anatolia’s best-preserved early Christian artworks, in Iznik, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Khalil Hamra/AP Phto)

POPE LEO XIV CALLS FOR ‘DIVINE GIFT OF PEACE’ IN MAIDEN VISIT TO MIDDLE EAST

Pope Leo XIV recently visited the town as part of his first overseas trip since taking the helm of the Vatican. While in Iznik, Pope Leo XIV marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which set forth the Nicene Creed that millions of Christians still read today.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) welcomes Pope Leo XIV (R) with an official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkiye, on Nov. 27, 2025. (Utku Ucrak/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented a tile painting of the “Good Shepherd” discovery to the pope, according to the AP.

While in Turkey, Pope Leo XIV was joined by Eastern and Western patriarchs and priests as they prayed that Christians would one day be united once again. They prayed together over the site where the council produced the Nicene Creed. The men recited the creed, which the pope said was “of fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making toward full communion,” according to the AP.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

World

Three years on, former MEP Kaili remains in limbo still awaiting trial

Published

12 hours ago

December 12, 2025

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Three years on, former MEP Kaili remains in limbo still awaiting trial

The detention of former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini earlier this month in a fraud investigation in Belgium has raised fresh questions about why suspects in the European Parliament’s corruption scandal still have not faced trial, three years after arrests that shocked Brussels.

Mogherini, who led the EU’s diplomatic service from 2014 to 2019 and then served as rector of the prestigious College of Europe, was questioned alongside two others on suspicion of alleged procurement fraud, corruption and conflict of interest related to an EU-funded diplomatic training programme.

The Italian top diplomat, who was eventually released pending charges, has since resigned from her post at the College of Europe.

Meanwhile, the protracted European Parliament corruption scandal investigation, which began with raids across Brussels on 9 December 2022, has moved at a glacial pace.

Greek MEP Eva Kaili became the face of the scandal when Belgian police revealed it had discovered €150,000 in cash — purportedly in large bags — at her Brussels residence during the raids.

Since then, Kaili has spent the intervening years in a legal purgatory, or what some have since dubbed “Belgiangate”.

Brussels rocked by Parliament sting

Authorities said they discovered a total of €1.5 million in cash during the 2022 sting, including €600,000 at the home of former Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri and the money found at the Brussels residence of Kaili, who was also serving as one of 14 vice presidents of the European Parliament at the time.

Kaili’s father Alexandros was apprehended at the Sofitel hotel at Place Jourdan with a suitcase containing “several hundred thousand euros,” according to authorities.

A special police team accompanied by investigating judge Michel Claise then raided Kaili’s home that evening, arresting her in front of her two-year-old daughter.

Stripped of her parliamentary immunity, Kaili spent four months in pre-trial detention followed by house arrest with an electronic bracelet until May 2023, all while maintaining her innocence in what prosecutors allege was a scheme by three non-EU countries to buy influence in the European Parliament.

She remains charged with participation in a criminal organisation, corruption and money laundering.

The 47-year-old former MEP has consistently denied all charges. Her partner Francesco Giorgi, a parliamentary assistant and former aide to Panzeri, admitted accepting bribes but alleged Kaili was not directly involved in the corruption scheme. He is the father of Kaili’s daughter.

Byzantine court drama

The case centres on allegations that Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania sought to influence European Parliament decisions through bribes paid to MEPs and staff. Authorities say the scheme aimed to kill off parliamentary resolutions condemning Qatar’s human rights record and secure visa liberalisation for Qatari citizens. Both Qatar and Morocco deny the allegations.

Panzeri struck a deal with prosecutors in January 2023 to become a cooperating witness in exchange for a reduced sentence. Under the agreement, he committed to revealing “the identity of the persons he admits to having bribed.”

Defence lawyers have challenged Panzeri’s credibility and the methods used to secure his confession.

The case took another hit after Claise, the investigating judge who ordered Kaili’s arrest, was forced to recuse himself in June 2023 after it emerged his son was a business partner of Belgian MEP Marie Arena’s son — Arena herself later charged in the scandal.

Defence lawyers claim Claise knew about these connections and should have recused himself earlier, and that he protected Arena by delaying her indictment.

Marie Arena was charged only in January with participation in a criminal organisation but not with corruption or money laundering. Police found €280,000 in cash at her son’s home, according to Belgian media reports.

Another significant development came in September 2024 when a Brussels judge ordered Committee R, an independent body overseeing Belgian intelligence, to review the legality of “specific and exceptional methods” used by Belgian secret service VSSE in the investigation.

“It’s a very important and extraordinary decision that the appeal court made,” Kaili’s lawyer Sven Mary told Euronews at the time, adding that the finding could open a “new Pandora’s box” about the role Belgian intelligence played.

The Committee had issued an opinion in January confirming that the VSSE acted within the law. However, defence lawyers pointed out that Belgium’s penal code was not amended to criminalise foreign interference until April 2024 — a year and a half after the raids. At the time of the original investigation, only military espionage qualified as a prosecutable offence of interference.

Kaili has also challenged other parts of the investigation, arguing that Belgian authorities subjected her to “medieval” conditions during detention.

Her lawyers claimed she was held in solitary confinement for three days in January 2023 without adequate blankets, with lights on continuously, which they described as “torture”. Belgian prosecutors disputed these claims.

Case known as Belgiangate?

The procedural challenges facing the investigation are substantial. Defence lawyers have questioned the case on multiple fronts, including how Kaili’s immunity was lifted, the role of Belgian intelligence services, and the credibility of key witness Antonio Panzeri.

A crucial dispute centres on whether investigators artificially created a flagrant delicto situation. When Kaili’s father was arrested carrying a suitcase of cash on 9 December 2022, Judge Claise used this to justify an immediate search of Kaili’s home.

Defence lawyers argue immunity can only be lifted when someone is caught in the act, and that investigators manufactured these conditions specifically to bypass her parliamentary protections.

Questions about Panzeri’s reliability intensified after Giorgi secretly recorded an investigator saying, “Panzeri is lying.”

The recording, revealed by Belgian outlet La Libre, is said to have captured the investigator repeatedly questioning the credibility of the man Belgian authorities consider the scheme’s mastermind.

Prosecutors want the recording excluded, citing “unclear” circumstances. Defence lawyers insist it proves Panzeri’s cooperation agreement was granted too hastily and should have required court approval.

In September 2024, Kaili and Giorgi filed a defamation complaint against Panzeri with prosecutors in Milan.

In July of this year, Kaili won a legal victory when the EU’s General Court ruled that the European Parliament had wrongly denied her access to documents about her alleged mismanagement of parliamentary assistant allowances, part of an EPPO claim.

All still in limbo

The case has expanded significantly since the initial arrests. In March, prosecutors requested that parliamentary immunity be waived for Italian S&D MEPs Elisabetta Gualmini and Alessandra Moretti.

In total, at least 10 people now face charges, including former MEPs Panzeri, Cozzolino and Marc Tarabella, as well as lobbyist Niccolò Figà-Talamanca and Luca Visentini, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation.

The Brussels Chamber of Indictment only began reviewing the legality of the investigation this week, with hearings involving more than 20 parties to the case.

Kaili, who did not seek re-election in 2024, now lives in Italy and Greece, where authorities froze her assets shortly after her arrest, while it remains unlikely a trial will begin before late 2026 at the earliest.