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<h1 class="gmail-headline__title">The ANC Has Failed To Decolonise Our Colonial Education System</h1>
<h2 class="gmail-headline__subtitle">Afrikaans remains a colonial vestige in certain schools and institutions of higher learning.</h2> </div>
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<span class="gmail-timestamp__date--published">24/01/2018 15:07 SAST</span>
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<strong>Updated</strong>
2 hours ago
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<p>Sometimes the ANC, which has been
governing the country since 1994, acts like a civil society
organisation. A quintessence in this regard is its protest outside
Höerskool Overvaal in Vereeniging over a language policy.</p>
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Supporters of the South African ruling party African
National Congress (ANC) demonstrate against the language and admission
policies outside the Höerskool Overvaal school on January 19, 2018 in
Vereeniging, South Africa.
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<p>The
court has found that the school, which uses Afrikaans as a medium of
instruction, does not have the capacity to accommodate 55
English-speaking pupils.</p>
<p>As a governing party, the
ANC should develop a universal language policy to address institutional
racism in our schools and institutions of higher learning in order to
cultivate a new culture of multiracialism. As Kenyan academic Ngũgĩ wa
Thiong'o <a href="https://timrdoc.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/ngugi-wa-thiongo-the-language-of-african-literature-from-decolonising-the-mind/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">says</a>:
"The choice of language and the use to which language is put is central
to a people's definition of themselves in relation to their natural and
social environment, indeed in relation to the entire universe."</p>
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<p>In
cultivating a particular culture, as Wa Thiong'o points out, language
serves "as an image-forming agent in the mind of a child".</p>
<p>To be fair to the ANC,
addressing institutional racism is a collective responsibility, although
it carries more responsibility as the governing party. The Economic
Freedom Fighters (EFF), which started the protest, has also failed to
develop a language policy to address institutional racism in our schools
and institutions of higher education.</p>
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<p>Any
party in Parliament can develop a piece of legislation. Not long ago,
the national assembly (NA) passed the Labour Laws Amendment Bill,
proposed and developed by Cheryllyn Dudley, who is an African Christian
Democratic Party (ACDP) MP. The historic bill seeks to provide for
parental leave, adoption leave, and commissioning parental leave.</p>
<p>The
EFF should know that anarchism is not a sustainable means to address
racism in all its forms. Concurrently, it should come up with
legislative measures to address racism.</p>
<blockquote class="gmail-pull-quote"><span class="gmail-quote">In a country with eleven official languages, English should be a monolingual medium of instruction.</span></blockquote><p>Afrikaans
remains a colonial vestige in certain schools and institutions of
higher learning. Learning for non-Afrikaans-speaking pupils at these
institutions, according to Wa Thiong'o, becomes just "a cerebral
activity and not an emotionally felt experience".</p>
<p>In
essence, the ANC has failed to decolonise our colonial system of
education. In contrast to students' demand for decolonised higher
education, decolonisation should start at a primary-school level with an
inclusionary language policy, a phenomenon known as "catching them
young".</p>
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<figcaption class="gmail-image__caption">
Members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union
(SADTU) dance as they demonstrate outside Höerskool Overvaal school
against the school's language and admission policies, on January 22,
2018 in Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg.
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<p>In
South Africa, it should start with the abolition of Afrikaans as a
medium of instruction in our schools and other institutions of higher
learning. Afrikaans should assume the same status as other indigenous
languages. In a country with eleven official languages, English should
be a monolingual medium of instruction.</p>
<p>The
language policy at Höerskool Overvaal also brings to light the lack of
confidence in our township schools by parents of the 55 English-speaking
pupils. In search of the best education, some black parents take their
children to white schools. Others do so with an impolitic belief that
English is a measure of intelligence.</p>
<p>More
than anything else, the protest outside Höerskool Overvaal and other
racially divisive narratives, such as farm murders, bring to light a
leadership vacuum – that is, an absence of a national unifier in the
mould of Nelson Mandela. Neither President Jacob Zuma nor his ANC
successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, is that leader – not by a long shot.</p>
<p>Democratic
Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane has what it takes to play the role
of a national unifier -- more so, given that he leads a racially diverse
party. However, he seems not to read the need to occupy the leadership
vacuum.</p>
<p><strong><em>Molifi Tshabalala is an independent political analyst</em></strong></p>
</div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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