Regulations that give the education minister power over the management of learner pregnancy ruffled feathers among National Assembly committee on basic eduction members, as deliberations on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill continued in Parliament on Thursday.
Clause 41 of the bill seeks to amend section 61 of the South African Schools Act, to extend the powers of the minister to make regulations on the management of learner pregnancy.
Although some MPs labelled the clause as a “blank cheque” given to the minister, it was decided that it should be given the go ahead.
Basic Education director of education management and governance development, James Ndlebe said:
“There's no regulation that will happen unless honourable members in this room have sat and it has gone to national assembly. So the word minister is just the word for the person who will bring it.”
The committee chairperson, Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, said the minister was mandated to speak for the people.
“The minister is a people’s minister.
So whatever she does she is doing it on behalf of the people. So clause 41 is going to be agreed,” said.
Freedom Front Plus’ Dr Wynand Boshoff said it would put the committee at ease if they received regulations before they were published.
“I think in the interest of democracy and transparency, that we are all in favour of the minister in terms of clause 41 regulations.”
ACDP MP Marie Sukers said the clause left the minister with wide ranging discretion.
“Without a clear indication of exactly what that management of learner pregnancy entails, the public has therefore not been given reasonable opportunity to interrogate the bill and throughout people asked the question of what exactly is in the bill.
“The lack of the exact scope of the minister's management of learner pregnancy in the Bela renders the bill and the public hearings formality to just give the minister a blank cheque to issue regulations at will, what those are and what those regulations and the implications would mean,” she said.
DA basic education spokesperson Baxolile Nodada said: “Regulations are binding so this issue of centralisation (of power) is problematic. I'm very uncomfortable to just willy-nilly give executive power. It’s something that I'm completely against,” he said.
Cape Times