It is tragic that the courts have to protect the true diversity of South Africa, with a dozen languages, from the ANC regime, and it remains unfortunate that the ANC government preaches diversity, yet applies monolingualism. This ruling is appropriate on the eve of Heritage Day, in that it recognized the language rights of students, and imposes a specific obligation with regard to execution on Unisa. It is equally unfortunate that language and cultural communities have to turn to the courts in the final instance, to claim their rights as diverse languages with specific reference to Afrikaans, especially at historically Afrikaans universities.
The Afrikanerbond yesterday issued a statement noting with satisfaction the ruling by the Constitutional Court, that UNISA’s language policy is unconstitutional and unlawful. They took the opportunity to congratulate AfriForum on instituting proceedings against Unisa, and on their perseverance over the course of five years to have the matter settled.
S 29(2), on which the judgement rests, determines that everyone has the right to receive education in the official language of their choice in public educational institutions, which, according to the ruling, also includes higher education institutions. To ensure this right, the state can consider all reasonable educational alternatives, including single-medium institutions, as long as such institutions meet the requirements of equality and reasonable practicability, and address past discriminatory laws and practices. Furthermore, everyone has the right to set up private educational institutions as long as these institutions are not racially discriminatory, are registered with the state and maintain the same standards as public institutions. The state may subsidise such private institutions.
The Constitution contains certain language arrangements that have so far not been properly observed or, as the ruling against Unisa reflects, are unconstitutional and unlawful. The trend so far has been to change a multilingual South Africa into an English-monolingual South Africa. It is not about a struggle between languages, but about the preservation and expansion of languages, including Afrikaans and the other indigenous languages. Therefore, it remains continuously necessary to negotiate a binding commitment to the equal treatment of all 10 indigenous languages in official use. English should never be the only privileged language. We hope and trust that other universities and institutions have taken careful note of the ruling!
Listen and Read also: Afrikaans was 146 Years Old on 14 August, Ironically also the Last Day for Comments on Second Draft of Stellenbosch University’s Language Policy
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