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Nzimande rubbishes DA claim that he hates Afrikaans

Official opposition files complaint against Blade with the SA Human Rights Commission

Higher education, science and technology minister Blade Nzimande.
Higher education, science and technology minister Blade Nzimande.
Image: Jairus Mmutle

Minister of higher education, science and innovation Blade Nzimande has dismissed with contempt the idea by the DA that he hates Afrikaans.

This comes after the DA filed a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission against Nzimande for classifying Afrikaans as a foreign language.

Nzimande accused the DA of recycling its old and tired strategy that was defeated in 1996, seeking to privilege Afrikaans as an instrument to exclude the majority of South Africans in accessing education, especially in former white education institutions.

“Afrikaans should and must be located in a democratic South Africa and be rescued from a white right-wing agenda, and this should not be viewed as being in conflict with promoting mother tongue instruction in a democratic South Africa,” Nzimande said. 

He said he wanted the department to use SA languages for transformation in the post-school education and training sector as a whole by enhancing the status and roles of previously marginalised languages.

Nzimande said he  will study both the Constitutional Court judgment on Unisa’s language policy and the DA complaint filed with the commission.

“We are, however, more than determined to defend our language policy in higher education and we are prepared to engage anyone with a genuine desire to tackle inequalities in language use and development in our country. 

“In consultation with my legal team, I will communicate further on the implications of the Constitutional Court judgment on the entire post-school education and training sector,” Nzimande said.

DA’s Leon Schreiber said Nzimande’s classification of Afrikaans as a “foreign” language was contained in the language policy framework for public higher education institutions dated October 2020.

“The framework only defines languages that ‘belong to the Southern Bantu language family’ as indigenous, thereby directly excluding Afrikaans from the definition of indigenous. Nzimande’s insistence on discriminating against Afrikaans and the people who speak it simply cannot stand. It is untruthful, unscientific and unconstitutional,” Schreiber said.

Meanwhile, vice-chancellors of public universities, experts and other stakeholders are meeting to contemplate ways to implement the new language policy for higher education that was gazetted in October last year.

Universities South Africa (USAf) said this was with a view to advance transformation in higher education by invigorating the role of African languages in the core functions of SA’s university system. 

The vice-chancellors will confer on the new language policy on higher education during a two-day event to be held at Stellenbosch University.

USAf said the purpose of the colloquium was to provide a platform for robust intellectual engagement and debates on the new language policy, explore the philosophical, constitutional and legislative base of the policy and the broader systemic issues informing the foregrounding of multilingualism, transformation and decolonisation in the broader sector agenda.

According to Dr Sizwe Mabizela, vice-chancellor and principal of Rhodes University and the chairperson of USAf’s Teaching and Learning Strategy Group, by mainstreaming African languages in teaching and learning, universities will be advancing transformation beyond granting access and diversifying SA’s higher education system.

“By delivering the curriculum in students’ mother tongue, universities will be supporting them more meaningfully and enhancing their success,” Mabizela said.

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