Afrikaans in schools not under threat

Member of the Executive Council for Education in Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi has assured the Afrikaans community that their language is not under threat.

Lesufi and AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel took part in a public debate about the future of Afrikaans in schools. The debate was a result of a Constitutional Court ruling in favour of the Gauteng Department of Education which had stipulated that children from outside a school’s traditional catchment area should not be turned away.

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Another point that was discussed at the debate was the proposed plan by the department to change offensive school names which were believed to glorify apartheid icons. The proposed plan was met with serious concern by various civil rights organisation which said the department was unfairly targeting Afrikaans schools. A subsequent disagreement on Twitter between the MEC and Kriel ensued. AfriForum accused Lesufi of attacking the language and Afrikaans culture instead of addressing the real problems that faced the schooling system. “You are becoming a barrier to access quality education to black children if you’re focusing on the wrong target,” said Kriel.

In his defence, Lesufi said Afrikaans schools were exclusively white and it was time for that to change. “Don’t even try to attack our commitment to a non-racial South Africa,” said Lesufi.

Kriel mentioned that 80 percent of the province’s schools were dysfunctional, but Lesufi said it was a work in progress as he was trying to undo the apartheid government’s educational system. “We’ve paid a heavy price to believe in non-racialism,” he said.

“We’ve accepted reconciliation as a root to build this country.”

Kriel also accused Lesufi of holding a deep vengeance against the apartheid government and that this was causing the MEC to retaliate against Afrikaans people. He added that Lesufi had stated his irritation that in 2016, Afrikaans was still being taught in schools. “That irritation may stop Afrikaans schools from operating,” Kriel said.

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Education in English only, Kriel added, would be to the detriment of children who spoke the language. “English is a barrier to good education,” he said, urging the MEC not to make the same mistake that was made by the government in 1976 when pupils were forced to learn in Afrikaans where, today, pupils would be forced to be taught in English.

Lesufi concluded by saying Afrikaans and Afrikaans schools were not under threat. “All we are merely doing is encouraging non-racialisation of the education system,” he said.