The portfolio committee on basic education has raised alarm over delays in finalising key regulations of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, warning it will not allow deliberate delays.

Committee chairperson Joy Maimela said most members believe there are attempts to prevent the full implementation of the act by dragging out the process of drafting regulations, specially those dealing with the contentious sections on language and admission.

“Most members of the committee are of the view that deliberate attempts are being made to hold up the full implementation of the act by delaying the drafting of regulations, specially those that speak to the two contentious sections. The regulations should provide the necessary clarity to implementers of the act,” she said.

The committee was briefed by the department of basic education and provincial departments on Tuesday regarding the implementation of the act and status of regulations for sections 4 and 5. The Bela Act was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in September 2024.

After the act was passed, parties were given time to make proposals on how to resolve disagreements about the language and admission policies in the two sections. No consensus was reached, and the act was enacted on the understanding detailed regulations would follow.

Maimela reminded basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube that the deadline for the regulations was the end of June.

Gwarube told the committee she had issued draft guidelines to help provincial departments implement the act, but these were not binding. She said 10 task teams were working on finalising the regulations, two of which were nearly complete and under legal review.

The minister denied being influenced from outside to issue the guidelines.

However, the committee voiced concern about claims that the draft guidelines clash with the South African Schools Act (Sasa) and interfere with provincial administrative powers. Issues raised include confusion over the phrases “collaborative vs after consultation”, powers of the heads of departments and the appeals process.

“We have not been furnished with any guidelines or regulations. During our engagements with the provincial departments of education, it became apparent the guidelines differ from the Sasa. Some provincial departments of education are also confused by whether they received guidelines or regulations,” said Maimela. 

“This is confusion we were concerned about from the start. If the provincial departments of education are confused, what about the general public and other stakeholders. We cannot allow the confusion.”

Some provincial departments told the committee the council of education ministers (CEM) rejected the guidelines and referred the matter back to the heads of education departments committee, calling for focus on regulation drafting.

The committee has asked Gwarube to submit a full report within four working days detailing how the guidelines came about.

“The committee is of the view that the time spent for draft guidelines could have been used rather for drafting regulations. We need the detail of what led to the guidelines as we must discuss if we need to write to the office of the president and explain the confusion created in the sector,” said Maimela.

The committee also noted challenges raised by provinces, including infrastructure issues, funding for compulsory Grade R, stipends and training for grade R, and stipends and training for Grade R practitioners.

It refused to engage with the Western Cape education department's presentation, citing a lack of substance.

Maimela said: “The department has been told to amend its presentation and address the shortcomings. The Western Cape education department had a seven-slide presentation, but only three of the slides had the required information. We took a dim view as we noted the department seems to disregard our oversight role. We informed it to prepare a more detailed presentation that speaks to the request we sent to them.”