Nedlac Agreement On Bela Act Is Binding Solidarity

Solidarity says the National Economic Development and Labour Council Nedlac agreement on the Basic Education Laws Amendment BELA Act is binding.

Today marks the final deadline for parties to iron out their differences over clauses four and five of the BELA Act as set by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Despite a settlement between the trade union and Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, the Presidency has expressed doubts about the agreements legitimacy.

Solidarity's Operational Head Werner Human says there was a formal process at Nedlac and there were two agreements.

Human says, The one agreement was a bilateral agreement with the Minister of Basic Education. In that agreement we did two main things, we split the different powers between the President and the Minister of Basic Education as is established in law and then we went further and got into detail about how sections four and five can be addressed and how we can expand our efforts to also strengthen and advance mother tongue education. The second agreement was with the Presidency and that is a binding agreement. It is also an agreement that was quite a topic of discussion this past two weeks.