Joint media statement: Civil society calls for key changes to BELA Bill, as Parliament considers the biggest amendments to basic education laws in the past decade 15 June 2022 — Today, Equal Education (EE), Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), SECTION27, Centre for Child Law (CCL), Children’s Institute (CI), and Legal Continue Reading
SECTION27 Senior Researcher and Legal Counsel Faranaaz Veriava recently sat down with Patrick Bracher on his Radio Today show to discuss the Basic Education Rights Handbook. You can listen to the discussion here
Today a crucial case is being heard in the Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) that has been brought by the Centre for Child Law and five school governing bodies, represented by the Legal Resources Centre. The case concerns the unequal and unfair distribution of teachers to schools in the province and the failure of the Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education (ECDBE) to implement their own ‘post provisioning plan’ for 2012. A post provisioning plan is a plan to ensure that there is a fair distribution of teachers to all schools in the province and that schools have the teachers (and other staff) that they require to provide basic education.
On 22 June 2012, SECTION27, the Legal Resources Centre, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the Centre for Child Law, Equal Education and the Equal Education Law Centre sent an open letter to the Minister of Basic Education. In this letter we detailed our concerns about the barriers to quality basic education and the urgent need to address the lapses in the administration of education. We requested an urgent meeting with the Minister in order to discuss a way forward.
On 15 July 2010, SECTION27, incorporating the AIDS Law Project and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) made a joint submission on the draft Constitution Nineteenth Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
The Bills propose establishing a single judiciary with the Constitutional Court as the apex court for all legal matters. The submission focuses primarily on the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court; the regulation of the terms of office of judges of the Constitutional Court; and the expansion of the mandate of the Judicial Service Commission.
The AIDS Law Project (ALP) is concerned about irresponsible and inaccurate reporting that has taken place around the suspension of Bishop Paul Verryn as the Superintendent Minister of the Central Methodist Mission (CMM). Media reports have misleadingly suggested that the disciplinary charges are related to allegations of sexual abuse at the CMM.