JOHANNESBURG (AP) — 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 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.
The Democratic Alliance joined the unity government led by the African National Congress in June after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of the racist governing system of apartheid in 1994.
The ANC believes the bill would avoid the exclusion of majority Black learners from schools where the only language of instruction is Afrikaans.
Steenhuisen said that during negotiations to form the government of national unity, the Democratic Alliance made it clear the education bill was unacceptable in its current form. He said it threatened the constitutional right to education in students' mother tongue.
“If the president continues to ride roughshod over these objections, he is endangering the future of the government of national unity and destroying the good faith on which it was based,” Steenhuisen said.
Ramaphosa could sign the bill into law or send it back to Parliament for amendments if he believes it won’t stand up to constitutional scrutiny.
Civil society group Afriforum asserted that the bill would wipe out Afrikaans schools, saying that “the inevitable end of this process will be that the schools will become single-medium English institutions.”
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - In this photo provided by the South African Government Communication and Information System, (GCIS), South African Président Cyril Ramaphosa, right, greets opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen, left, at the first sitting of Parliament since elections, in Cape Town, on June 14, 2024. (South African GCIS via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson will move ahead with a temporary spending bill that would prevent a partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, despite the headwinds that prompted him to pull the bill from consideration last week.
The bill includes a requirement that people registering to vote must provide proof of citizenship, which has become a leading election-year priority for Republicans raising the specter of noncitizens voting in the U.S., even though it's already illegal to do so and research has shown that such voting is rare.
“I urge all of my colleagues to do what the overwhelming majority of the people of this country rightfully demand and deserve — prevent non-American citizens from voting in American elections,” Johnson said Tuesday.
The legislation faces an uphill climb in the House and has no chance in the Senate. The vast majority of Democrats oppose it, and some Republicans do, too, but for different reasons.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the only way to prevent a government shutdown was for both sides to work together on an agreement. He said the House vote announced by Johnson was doomed to fail.
“The only thing that will accomplish is make clear that he's running into a dead end,” Schumer said. “We must have a bipartisan plan instead.”
The legislation would fund agencies at current levels while lawmakers work out their differences on a full-year spending agreement.
Democrats, and some Republicans, are pushing for a short extension. A temporary fix would allow the current Congress to hammer out a final bill after the election and get it to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature.
But Johnson and some of the more conservative members of his conference are pushing for a six-month extension in the hopes that Republican nominee Donald Trump will win the election and give them more leverage when crafting the full-year bill.
Schumer said a six-month measure would shortchange the Pentagon and other government agencies that need more certainty about funding levels.
“You simply cannot run the military with six-month stopgaps,” Schumer said.
Johnson said last week that he was not giving up on his proposal just yet and would be working through the weekend to build support. He said ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote in federal elections is “the most pressing issue right now and we’re going to get this job done.”
On Sunday, he traveled to Florida to meet with Trump, who had earlier seemingly encouraged a government shutdown if Republicans “don’t get assurances on Election Security.” Trump said on the social media platform Truth Social that they should not go forward with a stopgap bill without such assurances.
The House approved a bill with the proof of citizenship mandate back in July. Some Republicans who view the issue as popular with their constituents have been pushing for another chance to show their support for the measure. Still, other Republicans are expected to vote no because they view the spending in the bill as excessive.
FILE - Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks at the Capitol in Washington, July 23, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Speaker Johnson sets House vote on government funding bill after a one-week postponement
Speaker Johnson sets House vote on government funding bill after a one-week postponement
