EFF WELCOMES UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH DECISION TO ADOPT ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION OVER AFRIKAANS
13 November 2015
The EFF welcomes the University of Stellenbosch's decision to change Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. This followed the students protests which had been ongoing since the days of #StatuesMustFall. We welcome this as a victory over racism and imagined Afrikaner superiority which was imposing its language despite the reality that majority of the student demographics had changed radically over the decades.
This decision must go down in history not as a decision against Afrikaner people. This is a decision against white minority domination. It is neither about eliminating Afrikaans as a language, but eliminating racism and white superiority complex which uses Afrikaans, amongst other things, to perpetuate itself.
We call on all other primary and high schools which still insist on using Afrikaans as a medium of instruction despite the wishes of the majority to change. It is not only anti-democratic, it represents the same racist arrogance of apartheid days. Schools in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Stellenbosch and other areas where people are still forced by language policies to use Afrikaans when they do not want to, must take example from Stellenbosch University. This includes government department that still use Afrikaans signage in areas dominated by other language groups. All these signs must fall.
The question of language must at all times be a choice and it must be demographically based in public areas. People must not travel too far from their homes to access schools that instruct in languages they understand and prefer, particularly when they are a majority. Schools must allow to evolve and not force historic heritages of language on present demographics.
We applaud the student protests, this is their victory. Their action has bestowed a human face on the university and it will also reflect in the entire town of Stellenbosch which still remains trapped in apartheid cultures of white domination.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 13 November 2015
