Government drops one of the worst ideas it has had in a while

The Department of Basic Education has dropped plans to allow schools in South Africa to sell alcohol after hours.

The proposal was initially contained in the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill, which recently concluded the national public consultation phase of the drafting process.

The portfolio committee on basic education was presented with the feedback from said consultations this week, where the general overview of sentiment towards the bill and its various provisions were delivered.

Recommendations on the different clauses were given, and the department’s comments and intentions of the way forward were also laid out.

While many clauses in the bill were uncontested, others drew fierce debate and warranted compromise and adjustments by the department.

However, the suggestion that schools be able to sell alcohol on the premises was universally rejected.

According to the committee notes, the clause “received the most opposition from all the different organisations and individuals in all venues where public hearings were held“.

“It was a clause that brought uniform views in the hearings. Deletion of the clause was highly recommended by all,” it said.

While the initial proposal in the bill was to give schools another way to generate revenue to fund educational needs, the feedback from stakeholders and communities that the risks were too high, and the legal challenges too vast.

The department intended to ensure that the sales were strictly controlled and only took place after school hours when school kids were not present or at festivals and events.

However, almost everyone agreed that it was just a bad idea.

Some of the contentions included:

• Alcohol (for consumption) has no place at school in any capacity;
• Schoolchildren would have found a way to gain access to the alcohol;
• The school would be sending the wrong message to children;
• Laws already state that alcohol cannot be sold within 500 metres of a school.

While it was also argued that children were already exposed to alcohol by their parents at home – and also had access to alcohol in this way – no one was convinced this was a viable solution to bolstering resources.

Stakeholders went as far as to say that the provision would lead to the utter destruction of schools in the country – especially in rural communities.

The Department of Basic Education said that the clause would be withdrawn.

It has been recommended instead that school governing bodies lean on the current process where they can apply to the provincial head of department (HOD) for approval to supplement its resources.

However, a possible change could be that the HOD must respond within 14 days – failing which the application is deemed accepted. This would be to country the notoriously poor response times from the department, the committee said.

Read: Government U-turns on major change for Schools in South Africa