Court ruling on Afrikaans at US a slap in the face of minorities

26 October 2017  

The ruling of the High Court in Cape Town to uphold the current language policy at the University of Stellenbosch (US) is a slap in the face of all Afrikaans-speaking people and shows disregard for the internationally accepted principles of minority rights, says adv Anton Alberts, chairperson of the FF Plus.

The court dismissed with costs the application by the Gelyke Kanse movement to revise the language policy of the US.

Adv Alberts says that the ruling of the court not only shows disregard for international directives, but also the South African Constitution, in which minority rights with regard to language are entrenched. 

“Section 6 of the Constitution clearly acknowledges multilingualism. According to Section 6(2), the ‘state must take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages’.

“Unfortunately, the court’s ruling tramples the Constitution’s provision underfoot.

“There are about seven million people in the country that speak Afrikaans and nearly half of the population of the Western Cape speaks Afrikaans. There are four universities in the province and Afrikaans is used on a small scale at only one of these.

“The ANC government and others that have no regard for Afrikaans have jointly helped to wipe Afrikaans off the table as a language of instruction at nearly all higher education institutions.

“This rightly raises the question of where Afrikaans will be targeted next. Afrikaans speakers must act on this and support the FF Plus as it is the only party that unashamedly campaigns for the preservation of Afrikaans,” says adv Alberts. 

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus chairperson and parliamentary spokesperson: Higher Education, 26 October 2017