The Department of Basic Education invites all interested parties to submit written comments on the draft Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (the draft Bill) published in the Schedule hereto.

Kindly provide the name, address, telephone number, fax number and email address of the person or organisation submitting the comments.

Comments should be directed to -

The Director-General, Private Bag X085, Pretoria, 0001, for attention: Adv. TD Rudman, tel. 012 357 3856, email: rudman.d@dbe.gov.za, fax 012 323 9430.

Closing date: The comments must reach the Department by 10 November 2017.

Background notes

(a) The draft Bill has been approved by Cabinet for publication thereof in the Government Gazette for public comment.

(b) The draft Bill proposes to amend the South African Schools Act, 1996 (Act No. 84 of 1996), and the Employment of Educators Act, 1998 (Act No. 76 of 1898) (the SASA and the EEA, respectively), so as to align them with developments in the education landscape and to ensure that systems of learning and excellence in education are put in place in a manner which respects, protects, promotes and fulfils the right to basic education enshrined in section 29(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Certain technical and substantive adjustments are also made to the SASA and the EEA to clarify certain existing provisions and to insert certain provisions to cover matters which are not provided for in the existing legislation.

(c) All the provincial education departments were consulted on the draft Bill, which was also presented to the Heads of Education Departments Committee and the Council of Education Ministers. All of these approved the draft Bill for publication in the Government Gazette for public comment. The Department also briefed numerous organisations, such as school governing body associations and unions involved in the education sector, on the content of the draft Bill. Some of the organisations and provincial education departments provided the Department with written comments. As indicated above, Cabinet has granted approval for the draft Bill to be published for public comment. It was decided that all the comments received thus far would be considered together with the comments that the Department expects to receive after the publication of the draft Bill for public comment. However, any person who, or organisation that has already submitted comments is at liberty to submit further comments.

(d) The draft Bill and the Memorandum on the Objects of the Bill, which provides the motivation for the various amendments contained in the draft Bill, appear in the Schedule.

For any further enquiries, please feel free to contact Adv. TD Rudman at tel. 012 357 3856 or rudman.d@dbe.gov.za.