The SABC has apologised for not broadcasting the Afrikaans news bulletin at the weekend. It's SABC's mandate to cater for all languages. The Afrikaans-speaking communities across SA rely on SABC Afrikaans news as a source of information.
Afrikaans, the third most spoken language in SA, is regarded as the world's youngest language. Post-1994, Afrikaans was recognised as one of SA's official languages, therefore, it's protected by the constitution.
Lest we forget, on June 16 1976, students protested against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Retrospectively, it seems black students' naiveté then on the West's imperialism agenda misled them to hold a narrow view that Afrikaans was the cause of black people's oppression, not colonialism. The 1884 Belin conference beneficiaries are real culprits of black people's incalculable miseries, yet they're still glorified as saints.
In the 30 years of democracy, black people are still struggling to develop their own indigenous languages. The lack of political will and sufficient resources hinders the development of indigenous languages to be on par with English and Afrikaans.
Less developed language could lead to intellectual bankruptcy and ultimately erosion of people's true identity.
Jerry Tsie, Pretoria
SowetanLIVE
READER LETTER | Let's develop our indigenous languages
The SABC has apologised for not broadcasting the Afrikaans news bulletin at the weekend. It's SABC's mandate to cater for all languages. The Afrikaans-speaking communities across SA rely on SABC Afrikaans news as a source of information.
Afrikaans, the third most spoken language in SA, is regarded as the world's youngest language. Post-1994, Afrikaans was recognised as one of SA's official languages, therefore, it's protected by the constitution.
Lest we forget, on June 16 1976, students protested against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Retrospectively, it seems black students' naiveté then on the West's imperialism agenda misled them to hold a narrow view that Afrikaans was the cause of black people's oppression, not colonialism. The 1884 Belin conference beneficiaries are real culprits of black people's incalculable miseries, yet they're still glorified as saints.
In the 30 years of democracy, black people are still struggling to develop their own indigenous languages. The lack of political will and sufficient resources hinders the development of indigenous languages to be on par with English and Afrikaans.
Less developed language could lead to intellectual bankruptcy and ultimately erosion of people's true identity.
Jerry Tsie, Pretoria
SowetanLIVE
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