South Africans

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ANC asked to clarify if Afrikaans speakers are considered ‘foreign’ in SA

With the row over how to classify Afrikaans as a language threatening to boil over, the ANC have been given a rather bizarre ultimatum.

South Africans

Image: Adobe Stock

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has doubled down with regards to his stance on Afrikaans. Ignoring a recent court order that compelled UNISA to reinstate the mother tongue as a language of instruction, the senior ANC representative claimed he was right to suggest the dialect ‘was not indigenous’ to South Africa.

ANC vs Afrikaans: Shadow minister demands clarification

As you’d expect, this has left a sour taste amongst the millions of Afrikaans-speaking citizens in SA – and no-one is more infuriated than Leon Schreiber. The DA shadow minister is hellbent on holding Nzimande accountable for his contentious position, and via a statement issued on Tuesday, Schreiber ripped into his opposite number.

“Minister Nzimande today defended his department’s Language Policy Framework for Higher Education – which hatefully and unconstitutionally classifies Afrikaans as a ‘foreign‘ language.”

“In a disgraceful manner, Nzimande went on to imply that the DA’s quest to recognise Afrikaans as an indigenous language alongside other South African languages was somehow “racist” and would lead to exclusion and oppression.”

Nzimande cops heat from the DA

The running battle between Schreiber and Nzimande shows no signs of calming down any time soon. With no concessions coming from the minister, the DA Constituency Head for Stellenbosch has also ramped up his rhetoric.

Schreiber has issued an ultimatum to the ANC as a whole: He wants the party – and certain individuals – to explain their ‘motivations’ behind this viewpoint, while also suggesting that Nzimande feels Afrikaans speakers are ‘foreign’ to SA.

“Nzimande’s blind insistence that Afrikaans is foreign despite the indisputable scientific fact that the language developed in South Africa and is spoken almost exclusively in this part of the world begs the question of whether Nzimande thus regards the speakers of the language as foreign to South Africa?”

“It is time for Nzimande to play open cards about the true motivations behind his illogical insistence on defying the Unisa ruling. Is it because he and the ANC government regards the speakers of the language and their cultures as somehow “alien” to South Africa? Or does the ANC believe that the speakers of Afrikaans do not equally belong here?”