Discussing The BELA Bill
On Thursday the 9th of June, People's Assembly hosted a Civic Education Forum aimed to providing the public with adequate information to help them understand and make comments on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill. This discussion was facilitated by Drew Haller (PA Communication Officer)and the panelists included the following people:
Forum Panelists:
Anjuli Maistry (Senior Attorney from Equal Education Law Centre)
"Anjuli joins the EELC as a senior attorney. Prior to this she worked at the Centre for Child Law (CCL) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR). At CCL, where she worked for four years, she focused on litigation, having worked on a variety of cases related to children’s access to socio-economic rights, including their access to basic and higher education as well as birth registration. At LHR, where she worked for five years, she managed the Johannesburg law clinic, and focused on litigation related to refugee and migrants’ rights. In 2020 she obtained her LLM in children’s rights (with a specific focus on access to education for learners with disabilities) at the University of Pretoria."
Ebrahiem Daniels (2nd Year Candidate Attorney from Equal Education Law Centre)
"Ebrahiem joined the EELC as a candidate attorney. He holds an LLB (Cum Laude) from the University of the Western Cape where he belonged to various societies, amongst which are the Students for Law and Social Justice, Chamber of Legal Students, and the Top Achievers Programme as a mentor. His passion for human rights started in high school where he was a member of the Representative Council for Learners for 2 consecutive years."
Zeenat Sujee (Attorney at Section27)
"Zeenat Sujee is an admitted attorney of the High Court, joining Team Education as an attorney. Zeenat completed her LLB and LLM at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and practiced as an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre and Centre for Applied Legal Studies. Her work has allowed her to litigate in areas relating to the right to access to housing, access to water, sanitation and electricity and the right to health. Zeenat also has substantial experience working on matters relating to gender issues which include the adverse impacts of the lack of adequate housing and sanitation on women and girl learners in schools. Zeenat was a law researcher at the Constitutional Court, the inaugural Stephen Ellmann Judicial Fellow at New York Law School and the inaugural Cameron Schrier Research Fellow at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies."
Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill: Resources and Submission Guidelines
The BELA Bill will be closing its submissions of the 15th of June, and all South African citizens are encouraged to make individual submissions, joint submissions, or endorse the submissions of other organisations.
To find out more about the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, and its submission process, we have provided a number of resources for you, which can be found below.
People's Assembly - Watch a recording of the forum here:
Step-by-Step guide to Writing a Submission
Bill Processing, Parliamentary Engagement and Submissions
Equal Education Law Centre: BELA Bill Explainer Handbook
Equal Education Law Centre Presentation on the BELA Bill
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