The South African Students’ Congress (SASCO) has perused the judgement handed down today virtually from the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) South Africa on the matter between AFRIFORUM and University South Africa (UNISA) pertaining to the language policy of UNISA. The judgement comes after a dubious battle after the University of South Africa amended its language to the extent it removed Afrikaans as language of learning and tuition.
SASCO holds a view that Afrikaans can be associated with dominion/power that was sustained for centuries of unfair and brutal ruling by the minority government over the majority blacks and Africans in particular and therefore the use of Afrikaans in our institutions of higher learning continues to symbolise such dominion in the democratic dispensation. The attempts by UNISA to transform the language policy to redress the legacy of apartheid and colonialism must be supported and thus we view the court challenge by Afriforum to sustain the status quo as fight back campaign by a reactionary racist organisations.
As the student movement we are of the firm view that, The majority judgment written by Mogoeng CJ in the matter between Afriforum and another v University of Free State (UFS), concurred in by Nkabinde ADCJ, Jafta J, Khampepe J, Madlanga J, Mhlantla J, Mojapelo AJ and Zondo J holds that “it would be unreasonable to slavishly hold onto a language policy that has proved to be the practical antithesis of fairness, feasibility, inclusivity and the remedial action necessary to shake racism and its tendencies out of their comfort zone”.
The judgement represents unfairness, discriminatory and exclusionary nature brought by Afrikaans as a language. As per the order of the SCA judgement of today we will be calling on our Student Representative Council (SRC) to institute a process of amending UNISA language policy that will not perpetuate unfair advantage or racial discrimination.
We call on our national university to remove Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and begin a process of adopting an African indigenous language and develop it to be a scientific and academic language.
SASCO further calls on the ministry of Higher Education and Training sector to be bold enough to enforce all our universities to amend their language policies designed to promote multilingualism and to enhance equity and access in higher education through:
1. The development, in the medium to long-term, of indigenous South African languages as mediums of instruction in higher education.
2. The development of strategies for promoting student proficiency in designated language(s) of tuition;
This will be consistent with the transcripts set out in the language policy for higher education of 2002.
Issued by SASCO NEC
PRESIDENT
Bamanye Matiwane
Secretary General
Buthanani Ngwane
For any enquiries
SASCO Media & Communication Liaison
Luvuyo Barnes
079 393 7131