Big ‘no’ to school booze bill
Proposed project gets outright rejection from the public
AFTER being rejected by its own legal opinion, the provincial education department forged ahead and still held public meetings to explain its controversial bill that proposes the sale of alcohol, but now the public has also rejected it.
The chairperson of the legislature’s standing committee on education, Basil Kivedo, said the bill had been rejected at almost every public hearing because of the alcohol factor.
“There was an overwhelming rejection of the bill because of the alcohol aspect to it. Residents simply did not want to hear it. But the other issues on collaboration schools and donor funding remained sort of untouched by those who attended the meetings,” said Kivedo, who is also a DA MPL.
“The bill had other aspects to it, but that was almost ignored by most people. People started off their speeches with the alcohol fears of the bill. I would have liked to hear comments on the donor funding and matter around the school governing bodies. The alcohol factor, however, dominated the debate outright,” he said.
Earlier this month, the DA-controlled provincial legislature’s own legal counsel advised against the adoption of the bill, warning that it was in conflict with national legislation.
Legislature legal adviser Andre le Roux said the clauses in the bill were in conflict with existing regulations contained in the national Schools Act that dealt with safety measures at public schools.
“The (national) regulations provide that no person may possess or use alcohol during any school activity. The regulations, in the definitions clause, define ‘school activity’ as any educational, cultural, sporting or social activity of the school, within or outside the premises,” Le Roux said.
Kivedo said the way forward depended on a decision by the provincial government, specifically the education department.
“The province has to decide whether they are going ahead with the proposed legislation or not. It is they who came up with the legislation; we facilitated the process to get the public’s input. It is difficult to establish the position of the committee because we also await the next steps, and as a committee we’d have to take decisions,” he said.
The spokesperson for the South African Communist Party, Zuko Mandayi, said the bill must be scrapped because it eroded intergovernmental relations and was morally flawed.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said: “The SACP do not represent ‘the people’, and their comments are not in line with the constitution or the best interests of education, which is what governs DA administrations.”