Afrikaans must stay on Potchefstroom Campus
7 November 2022
AfriForum Youth today handed a letter to dr Bismark Tyobeka, vice-chancellor of the North-West University (NWU) on the Potchefstroom Campus. This youth organisation feels compelled to physically hand over a letter in which they take a strong position that the future of Afrikaans on the Potchefstroom Campus must be secured after an investigation of the university’s policy documents revealed that a radical transformation policy is an integral part of their core policy is.
Strict race quotas in the NWU’s appointment process and a language policy that enables a statutory body to prescribe a language applicable to all campuses during any academic year, in any qualification or module, indicate that the Potchefstroom Campus is pushing Afrikaans out at a rapid speed under the guise of transformation.
Tyobeka has already made statements about the seriousness of the Potchefstroom Campus to keep Afrikaans on campus, but policy documents indicate the opposite. Considering this, the youth organisation travelled to Potchefstroom to physically hand over the letter and remind the Potchefstroom Campus that they only have 12 days left to answer the questions posed earlier.
AfriForum Youth on 19 October sent a formal application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to the Potchefstroom Campus to determine the future of Afrikaans.