UP Council decides against Afrikaans – AfriForum consults legal team

22 June 2016

AfriForum will continue consultations with its legal team, AfriForum Youth and other stakeholders re action to ensure that the constitutional language rights of Afrikaans-speaking students and prospective Afrikaans students will not be violated. This follows after the decision of the Council of the University of Pretoria that English will be the primary language of instruction at the university as of 2017.

Earlier this afternoon, the Council of the University of Stellenbosch similarly decided to phase out Afrikaans as primary language of instruction. On Monday(20 June 2016) AfriForum, AfriForum Youth and Solidarity opposed a comparable decision of the Council of the University of the Free State in the Bloemfontein High Court.  In this case, judgement has been reserved.

According to Alana Bailey, Deputy CEO of AfriForum responsible for language rights issues, Afrikaans has become a political pawn on campuses. “The spirit of the Constitution, proven best educational practices, the latest trends in education, as well as internationally recognized language rights are all being ignored in favour of the ideological agenda against the language.”

“AfriForum and anyone who feels strongly about the survival of Afrikaans as high-function language have a duty to oppose these decisions in any way possible within the framework of the law, and that is exactly what we intend to do. Furthermore, we call on the public to support private tertiary education institutions, for example Akademia, as the only sustainable alternative for students who want to study in Afrikaans.

Issued by Alana Bayley, Deputy CEO, AfriForum, 22 June 2016