<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="">UFS-Afrikaans case: Language, segregation and the Constitution</h1>
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<span id="lblByLine" class="">Jeanette Chabalala, News24</span>
<span id="lblTimestamp" class="">2016-06-20 20:08</span>
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<p>The removal of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at the University
of Free State was a violation of the Constitution, the Bloemfontein
High Court heard today.<br></p><p>“Afrikaans has a right to survive.
This matter is about the supremacy of the Constitution,” Johan du Toit
SC, representing AfriForum, told a full bench of judges. <br></p><p>In March, the university reached a unanimous decision to make English the primary medium of instruction from 2017. <br></p><p>The
university’s council said English would be the primary medium of
instruction at undergraduate and postgraduate level on the three
campuses situated in Bloemfontein and QwaQwa. <br></p><p>The council
also said that multilingualism would be supported by an expanded
tutorial system especially designed for first-year students. The council
said that in professional programmes – such as teacher education and
the training of theology students who wished to enter the ministry in
traditional Afrikaans-speaking churches, where there was a clear market
need – the parallel-medium teaching in English-Afrikaans and Sesotho and
isiZulu would continue. <br></p><p>It also added that the primary
formal language of the university administration would be English, but
with sufficient flexibility of multilingualism across the university. <br></p><p>However, soon after the decision was taken, AfriForum approached the high court for an interdict against the university. <br></p><p>Advocate
Greta Engelbrecht, also representing AfriForum, argued that the
language-policy decision taken by the university was unconstitutional. <br></p><p>“There
is a Constitutional issue at stake,” she said. “We should consider law
students who might want to offer their services in Afrikaans ... and
most of the students studying theology preferred Afrikaans. <br></p><p>“They [university] wish to shackle Afrikaans in its historical notion of oppression.” <br></p><p>However,
Jeremy Gauntlett SC, representing the university, said language had
become a surrogate for colour segregation in classes. <br></p><p>“The
university has to adopt a position for what is best for its function –
and [it] needs to do what is best for the community,” he said. <br></p><p>Gauntlett
also argued that there was a high demand for English and that, through
the implementation of the policy, there would be no job losses at the
university. <br></p>Judgment was reserved in the matter<br><br clear="all"><a href="http://city-press.news24.com/News/ufs-afrikaans-case-language-segregation-and-the-constitution-20160620">http://city-press.news24.com/News/ufs-afrikaans-case-language-segregation-and-the-constitution-20160620</a><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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