Bela threat disingenuous

Here is a general divide that defines South African politics at any one point in time.

- Sydney Majoko

This division might appear to be simplistically a racial one based on this country's racially segregated past but, on closer inspection, it is more a divide between those seeking to preserve unearned - sometimes undeserved - privileges from the past and those attempting to forge a new inclusive society.

This divide is at the centre of what is threatening to unravel the tenuous strings that hold the government of national unity (GNU) together. The Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act that the DA has now decided is the hill they are willing for the GNU to die on is the very definition of the division that defines this country.

Before President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Bill into law, the DA had already drawn its line in the sand, stating that it would leave the GNU if he signed it into law.

It did not leave when he signed it into law with conditions that clauses 4 and 5 not be immediately implemented.