MEC Lesufi unapologetic for his quest to provide education in another language
In his response today, 26 October 2018, to the Gauteng Legislature Integrity Commissioner Dr Ralph Mgijima, on a complaint lodged by a fellow Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL) for the Freedom Front Plus (“FFP”), Mr Philippus Adriaan van Staden, who insinuated that MEC Panyaza Lesufi is prejudiced against the Afrikaans language and incited racial tension amongst racial groups, particularly minorities, MEC Lesufi confirmed that, in no way, that he breached any Constitutional or legislative provisions, as alleged by the FFP in its complaint.
It must be noted that MEC Lesufi saw it necessary, important and duty bound to respond to the allegations made by Mr van Staden, particularly in view of the fact that such allegations are baseless and founded on paranoia and the manipulation of information to achieve an electoral advantage for the FFP and the response has been filed with the integrity commissioner in terms of which the MEC denies in the strongest terms, the allegation that he is in any way, prejudiced against the Afrikaans language, against Afrikaners, or against any other minority, in any form. On the contrary, the MEC’s actions on numerous occasions over the years confirm his commitment to the Constitution of South Africa and the rights of all citizens enshrined in that Constitution.
It is concerning that no corroborating evidence was provided by the FFP to support such damning allegations. Where evidence or corroboration was provided by Mr van Staden in relation to an allegation, as is apparent from the above, in most of cases, the corroboration was false.
This was deliberately intended to misrepresent the situation and to portray MEC Lesufi as being on a crusade against the Afrikaans language or Afrikaans schools whereas, in fact, there is absolutely no evidence to support that allegation.
Our bone of contention is that, where situations occur in areas where the racial demographics are changing in terms of residency and/or employment, it is completely logical, and the obligation of the department, to supply education to those learners as close as possible to their place of residence and/or their parents’ or guardians’ place of employment.
In this regard, it should be noted that there are numerous areas which, because of apartheid residential segregation, were largely white, and in certain instances Afrikaans, that are now changing as more black citizens and/or families have moved into these areas or are employed in these areas, and which would entitle them to apply to the local school in that area. In such instances, and as discussed above, when there are enough applications from learners who wish to be taught in English, schools may not refuse to accommodate learners on the basis that they are only prepared to teach in Afrikaans.
Surely, where the school is already full in terms of the required learner-teacher ratio and the infrastructure of the school is fully utilised, there may well be an argument to suggest that the school cannot take additional learners even if there are sufficient learners applying to be taught in a language other than that taught in by the school. The issues of capacity in schools and the utilisation of infrastructure is one which is a challenge both for the schools and for the department, which has a Constitutional obligation to provide education to all learners who qualify for that education.
This challenge is not restricted to Afrikaans schools and also exists in relation to English schools which the department may request to admit more learners where that is appropriate and justified.
“Let me be clear, I will make no apology for requesting an underutilised school that only teaches in Afrikaans and where there is a sufficient demand, as per the Norms and Standards of Language Policy in Public Schools, referred to above, to provide tuition in another language. I am simply not able to allow underutilised schools that teach in a single medium of instruction not to open their doors to learners who require an education, which I have a constitutional obligation to provide. In taking these necessary steps, I must comply with the Constitution and the applicable regulatory framework, and I have always done so. In relation to the allegation that there is a campaign being waged against the language policies of Afrikaans schools, I can confirm that in the past two months I have approved the language policies of approximately 98% of the Afrikaans schools that applied for the approval of their language policies. These policies would never have been approved if, as Mr van Staden contends, the Afrikaans language policies of Afrikaans schools were under attack”, said MEC Panyaza Lesufi.
The MEC’s responses to the allegations of Mr van Staden have been clustered into categories and topics as set out in the attached document.
Statement issued by Gauteng Department of Education Spokesperson, Steve Mabona, 26 October 2018
