Afrikaans is being bullied and the FF Plus says it’s time to hit back

17 January 2018  

It is clear that the MEC for Education in Gauteng, Mr Panyaza Lesufi, is using his issue with Afrikaans as a smoke screen to cover up his own department’s incompetency thereby causing racial conflict, says Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus.

According to Dr Groenewald, Lesufi’s tirade against Afrikaans as well as the Constitutional Court’s ruling against Afrikaans with regard to the University of the Free State’s language policy prove that Afrikaans is being bullied. The FF Plus says that the time has come for Afrikaans speakers to raise their voices in objection and to hit back.

He says that for this reason, the FF Plus laid a criminal charge against the Sedibeng East District Director of Education, Criselda Makhubela, in consequence of the court’s ruling on the Hoërskool Overvaal case.

“The charges are obstruction of justice, intimidation and incitement to commit perjury because according to the court’s ruling Makhubela intimidated the principals of the two English high schools, General Smuts and Phoenix, to change their sworn affidavits by saying that the schools cannot accommodate the extra learners while they initially said that they could.

“The disruptive and aggravating behaviour displayed by the ANC and the EFF at Hoërskool Overvaal today is unacceptable. The FF Plus wants to make it very clear that every individual, including parents, has the Constitutional right to protect him/herself and his/her children.

“The EFF and ANC are trying to make political cannon fodder of children in an attempt to save face. The FF Plus is strongly opposed to children being used as a pawn for political purposes.

“Children must be protected so they can receive their school education in a peaceful environment. The EFF and ANC are undermining the learners’ education and their aggravating behaviour is setting a bad example of how disputes are to be resolved.

“I am calling on parents to protect their rights with dignity, but not to take the law into their own hands and become the victims of malicious provocation,” says Dr Groenewald.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 17 January 2018