Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie during the South Africa team announcement at Olympic House on 8 July 2024 in Johannesburg. Picture: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
Sports. Arts & Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie says the Afrikaans language will receive fair treatment under his watch.
McKenzie said he had met with the Afrikaanse Taal Museum, which works to preserve the Afrikaans language and culture in South Africa, and reassured its representatives that the language will be treated like all official South African languages.
“I assured them that Afrikaans will take its rightful place among all other languages. Afrikaans will not be treated the way it is currently being treated,” he said.
“I gave them the assurance that Afrikaans will not be treated better than any other South African language, but it will also not be treated worse than any other language,” he said.
McKenzie said Afrikaans was the language of the second-largest population group in the country.
He said language bursaries would be made available to at least 400 students to boost preservation efforts.
During the same budget vote meeting, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) expressed displeasure with the inclusion of Die Stem in the national anthem.
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The party appealed to the minister to consider starting engagements to replace Die Stem with Afrikaans lyrics which were not from the old apartheid anthem.
Meanwhile, McKenzie also said he would strengthen efforts to retrieve the remains of South African freedom fighters who died overseas and in other African countries.
“This department will be resuming its role of repatriating numerous struggle soldiers in other African countries,” he said.
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He said his family was also affected by the death of a relative who was a freedom fighter in Angola.
“My mother saw her brother the last time he went to Angola. My mother died a broken woman because we do not know what happened to our beloved uncle Joe,” he said.
