During a question and answer session in the Gauteng Legislature, the FF Plus confronted the MEC for Education, Mr Panyaza Lesufi, about how Afrikaans will be protected in schools. The MEC indicated that official languages must be taught in all schools by means of allocating language blocks. He also recognised that Afrikaans is an African language and therefore it has the same rights as other languages.
In response, the FF Plus stated that the party respects all other indigenous languages and that mother-tongue education must be available in all the official languages. The problem in practice, however, is that parallel-medium and multilingual schools ultimately buckle under the pressure of English as dominant language and then the African-language-schools become Anglicised.
The FF Plus proceeded to ask the MEC how he plans to protect indigenous languages, and particularly Afrikaans, in the context of his proposed model.
In his answer, the MEC merely stated that all languages must be protected. He was unable to provide any indication of measures that will serve to protect a non-dominant language.
Lesufi initially make remarks about the past and he subtly tried to contextualise Afrikaans as an Apartheid-language while trying to portray the FF Plus as an anti-black party.
That is, however, untrue and the party corrected the MEC with its statement that the FF Plus supports the promotion of all indigenous languages. The MEC seemed surprised and stated that he views it as positive.
The FF Plus will use the MEC's statement about African languages as mediums of instruction as its premise to table suggestions for how mother-tongue education can be implemented without jeopardising any other languages.
Contact details: 082 391 3117
