Race, class, and the democratic project in contemporary South African education: Working and reworking the law

Democratization of the South African education system was significantly advanced by the South African Schools Act (SASA) promulgated in 1996. SASA gave parents the power to direct the course and substance of their children’s education in important ways. The circumstances of its origination, however, left in place crucial features of the country’s apartheid education system. Central among these were white parent’s rights to determine their schools’ admission and language policies. In this contribution I explore the tensions over democratic principles experienced by the South African government in correcting SASA to manage parents’ control over these key school policies. I do so through a critical engagement with the positions that have emerged in the process currently underway to consider the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA). I argue these positions represent a struggle in play over whether the future South African school system will be marked by ongoing and new forms of race and class domination.