Yesterday’s final decision to phase Afrikaans out at the University of Pretoria (UP) and the University of Stellenbosch (US) will be remembered as a dark day for Afrikaans speakers in South Africa and makes a mockery of the negotiated settlement which was reached before the 1994 election, Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on higher education, said.
He said the management of both universities’ argument of international competitiveness of English and adapting to the demographics, are false and that political expediency is the great driving force behind the decision, despite the denials of this.
“Afrikaans universities and students have always been highly regarded on an international level and the language was never a restriction on achievements. The opposite is however true. This decision to trample Afrikaans was taken intentionally.
“Demographically, the US finds itself in a dominantly Afrikaans environment and so too, the UP, where Afrikaans is the second largest language in the Tshwane Metro, next to Sepedi.
“The phasing out of Afrikaans is a human rights abuse of all Afrikaans speakers in South Africa. The FF Plus will be taking steps about this decision at universities and Parliament,” Adv. Alberts said.
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