Today, the FF Plus again accused the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, of deliberately confusing language with race so as to lay a false foundation for ultimately destroying Afrikaans public schools.
During a media conference, which was held by the provincial government yesterday, Lesufi stated that his department supports the principles contained in the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.
In terms of this Bill, all public schools' school and admission policies will fall under the authority of government.
Lesufi's personal vision for Gauteng is to, based on the powers in terms of this legislation, ensure that at least three languages are simultaneously used as medium of instruction at public schools to make sure that no school has, on the basis of language, learners of only one race.
Given Lesufi's earlier statements about and conduct towards Afrikaans schools, the FF Plus assumes that the MEC's statement was once again explicitly aimed at Afrikaans schools – even though there were only 127 single-medium Afrikaans schools out of a total of 2 071 public schools in Gauteng in 2019.
In addition, the MEC lashed out at Afrikaners and Afrikaans on several occasions during sessions of the Gauteng Legislature and the Oversight Committee on Education.
His Twitter timeline speaks volumes of his prejudice towards Afrikaners and Afrikaans.
The FF Plus condemns this argument seeing as there are no Afrikaans public schools that admit only one race of learners.
In fact, there are numerous schools in Gauteng that have only black learners. In any case, a particular school's learner composition depends on its environment's demographics, and language is not used to exclude anyone.
Afrikaans, in particular, cannot be accused of being a language of exclusion seeing as the largest Afrikaans-speaking component consists of non-whites.
Lesufi's main problem is that he dislikes Afrikaans schools where the majority is white or coloured and Afrikaans speaking, in other words, schools controlled by Afrikaners or coloured Afrikaans speakers.
The ANC believes that every school must reflect the national demographics of the country and that is ultimately what Lesufi is envisioning with his multilingual plan for every school.
He knows all too well that as bridge language, English will become the centrifugal force and consequently, all public schools will become anglicised, which will spell the end of all Afrikaans schools.
The FF Plus also finds it surprising that Lesufi indicated that more schools must be built.
Just last year he stated in the Education Committee that there is enough school infrastructure in Gauteng, but that parents do not want to send their children to township schools even if those schools are newly built.
The reason behind it is the perception among parents that these schools have poorer standards.
During one Education Committee meeting, the FF Plus urged Lesufi to challenge this perception so that some schools are not inundated with applications for admission while there are many other schools that are practically empty. He indicated at the time that his Department is working on it.
But now it seems that, according to Lesufi, there is indeed a shortage of school infrastructure, just like the FF Plus has been saying all along.
The solution to the problem of access to schools has nothing to do with a language or race issue, but with the fact that the Department is not doing enough to ensure that schools are built. That is the root of the problem that hampers access to schools.
The FF Plus will take up this matter in the Legislature, and firmly oppose the onslaught on single-medium schools at the expense of Afrikaans.
