Pastor upset over Taal issue

A pastor from Welkom in the Free State travelled all the way to Pretoria to hand over a memorandum to the office of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking that he put a stop to the discrimination against the Afrikaans language.

Pastor Andrew September, 65, also asked that government and the ANC change their negative attitude towards Afrikaans and Afrikaans-speaking people.

“We have 11 official languages and we need to respect all of them. “But, if the ANC does not want me to speak Afrikaans, then it is just as if they are killing me and all the people who speak Afrikaans,” said September.

He said he spoke in Afrikaans when he handed his memorandum over and he was addressed in Afrikaans by staff at the Union Buildings.

“How can I not be allowed to express myself in my own language, in the language that I am comfortable with?” he asked.

“I did not have the opportunity to go to school. I only spent three months in school, but that does not mean I am stupid or that I have an inferiority complex. I still know what is right and wrong and I will fight for my language,” he said.

He said it also does not mean he is happy with the fact that Afrikaans schools are changing into English only schools.

“We have a right to go to school in Afrikaans and we as Afrikaans people have a lot to offer the country if they would give us an opportunity,” September said.

He said he would be back on February 15, when he expects an answer or he will go on a hunger strike at the Union Buildings.

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