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On Friday, south African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a disputed education law on languages in schools, after reaching an agreement with his initially opposed coalition partner.
The dispute over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) earlier this year was the first major test of the government of national unity, forged after the May elections in which the African National Congress (ANC) lost its majority in its worst showing since the first all-race elections of 1994.
Objections from the second-largest party in the government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), and a handful of smaller parties originally focused on two clauses that would give the government more power to determine schools' language and admission policies.
Critics say this will undermine mother-tongue education, with the Afrikaans community in particular fearing it could penalise schools that teach in its minority language.
DA leader John Steenhuisen, who announced his party's lawyers were building a case against the bill in September, noted that only about five per cent of South Africa's schools teach in Afrikaans.
"We do not believe the president should sign (the) BELA Bill into law," Steenhuisen said.
"We will have to consider all of our options on the way forward."
But Ramaphosa previously said he signed the bill to "give a clear message to the people of South Africa that we are proceeding with the transformation of our education system".
"The DA and the other parties agreed to the full implementation, but it was done on the condition that the Minister of Basic Education has got the right to write and implement the norms, regulations, and standards," DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp told the broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
Other amendments include tightening regulations for home-schooling, penalties to reinforce a ban on corporal punishment and possible jail terms for parents who do not send their children to school.
The bill will also make compulsory the first level of schooling for children aged four to five.
South Africa's white Afrikaner minority -- descendants of 17th-century Dutch settlers -- is a core constituency for the DA party.
Despite various stakeholders in and outside of government raising seemingly counterproductive concerns around the implementation of this Act, the President has instilled confidence in the Constitution, democracy and the basic education sector by signing a Presidential Proclamation to bring the Act into operation and directing the Minister of Basic Education to oversee its full implementation.
© Agence France-Presse
