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<h3 id="gmail-DailyNewsHeadline">Cyril Ramaphosa and the language challenge</h3>
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Hermann Giliomee |
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10 June 2018
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Hermann Giliomee says the President can win over the Afrikaans-speakers by securing the future of their language
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<p><b>Text of address by Hermann Giliomee prepared for the
centennial festival dinner of the Afrikanerbond (formerly Broederbond),
at which the President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, was the guest of honour and
main speaker, 7 June 2018. </b><b></b></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><b><span>Binding the nation through language diversity. A challenge to a new President </span></b></p>
<p><span>I have had only one previous exchange with Mr Ramaphosa. He
came to the Stellenbosch University campus early in 1994 just after
agreement had been reached on the Interim Constitution. After the speech
I rose to ask a question; “Why did the different parties agree to an
electoral system that was wrong for reconciliation between the white and
black communities?”</span></p>
<p><span>In his book ‘<i>A Democratic South Africa’</i></span>, <span>published
in 1991 the highly regarded American legal scholar, Donald Horowitz,
made it very clear that our electoral system, chosen by the parties at
Codesa, namely a Proportional Representation list system, gives powerful
impetus to the exclusion and resultant alienation of those ethnic or
racial groups not represented in the majority coalition. Given the
experience elsewhere, it would have been far better for South Africa to
have a variant of the Plurality System, which rewards the party that is
most widely spread over the different communities and regions. </span></p>
<p><span>Mr Ramaphosa smiled and replied: “Listen here, Dr. Giliomee, I did not come to Stellenbosch to answer difficult questions.”</span></p>
<p><span>I thought that was a gentle way of putting down an ivory tower
academic trying to be smarter than the politicians grappling with thorny
issues. But of course Mr. Ramaphosa was also well aware that the
Communist faction in the ANC was pressing very hard for the PR list
system. In virtually any other system they would feature far less
prominently as candidates in the ANC-led coalition and they would have
suffered a great setback in their ambition to impose their National
Democratic Revolution. </span></p>
<p><span>Ramaphosa belonged to the faction called the nationalist
faction, who were mostly drawn from the UDF ranks. What joined them in a
coalition with the Communists was the idea of national liberation
through de-colonisation. The Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin made the
acute remark that national liberation movements that claimed to be
fighting for liberty against a colonial oppressor were not necessarily
fighting for liberty but for the recognition of the distinctiveness as a
nation and for national independence that went further than formal
political independence.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn1" title=""><span>[1]</span></a></span></p>
<p><span>The electoral system agreed on in 1993 also suited the National
Party. Mr. F.W. de Klerk could tell his caucus that with polls showing
20 per cent support for the NP, virtually all members were assured of a
seat in the next Parliament. According to Horowitz with his wide
comparative perspective, it is a common error to assume that the
politicians drawing up a new constitution have the long term interests
of the country at heart. They invariably choose to put the interest of
their party first. It was predictable that the electoral system would
facilitate and promote the race-baiting that seems to be getting worse.</span></p>
<p><span>It also made the position of minorities more precarious
especially in the competition for jobs in the public sector and in
enjoying language rights. There is no reason to doubt that effective
protection for Afrikaans was an important issue for De Klerk. Yet the
whole question of official languages received surprisingly little
attention from government. The early failure to discuss some key issues,
together with the changeover from Gerrit Viljoen to Roelf Meyer as
chief negotiator, made later negotiations exceptionally difficult.</span></p>
<p><span>In June 1992 a delegation from the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en
Kuns – the main mouthpiece for Afrikaans in tertiary education – handed
De Klerk a memorandum with proposals for a post-apartheid language
policy, in the presence of some 50 Afrikaner leaders from all walks of
life. </span></p>
<p><span>The president pledged to keep the Afrikaans language community
informed, using the Akademie as the main channel. But a year later, on 3
May 1993, chief NP negotiator Roelf Meyer told the Akademie’s secretary
he did not know of any document on Afrikaans that had been submitted.
The only document he was aware of was the ANC’s language proposals. This
was startling news for the Akademie leadership, given that at least
four Afrikaans bodies had prepared submissions.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn2" title=""><span>[2]</span></a></span></p>
<p><span>Later in 1993 the Akademie published its ‘Language Plan for the
Country’. It argued there were eleven main languages, which it depicted
as inherently of equal worth and entitled to protection. Citizens had
to be given the opportunity to communicate with the government in any of
the main languages. It urged retention of English and Afrikaans as
official languages but proposed providing the opportunity for all nine
other languages to attain official status and offered to facilitate that
process thought technical assistance with dictionaries and so on.
Language rights ought to be seen as a human right and incorporated in a
bill of rights. These rights had to be expanded, not abridged.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn3" title=""><span>[3]</span></a> </span></p>
<p><span>It was apparent from the start that the ANC, paying only lip
service to multilingualism, confidently expected making English the
dominant public language once it was in power. The multi-party
negotiating body finally decided to recognise eleven official languages.
Lawrence Schlemmer commented that this decision ‘was in fact a decision
taken in bad faith’. </span></p>
<p><span>Almost from the start the ANC ‘back-tracked on its
constitutional commitments, pleading costs and practicality, and it
would continue to make very few resources available for effective
multilingualism’.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn4" title=""><span>[4]</span></a>
The NP secured a clause providing that ‘rights related to language and
the status of languages existing at the commencement of [the Interim
Constitution] shall not be diminished’ but this provision would be
omitted from the final Constitution.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn5" title=""><span>[5]</span></a></span></p>
<p><span>The government and the ANC were soon at loggerheads over the
language character of universities and university autonomy. Some ANC
members – of whom Kader Asmal, a future minister of national education,
was the most vociferous – soon indicated that the new government would
have little patience with attempts by universities like Stellenbosch and
Potchefstroom to maintain an Afrikaans character even if it was
non-racial. Neither the government nor the Afrikaans universities
collectively developed a comprehensive plan for the survival of
Afrikaans at tertiary level.</span></p>
<p><span>Stellenbosch and Potchefstroom simply assumed they could
continue using Afrikaans as medium. Rand Afrikaans University and the
University of Pretoria made their own plans for dual medium and parallel
medium instruction, while the University of Orange Free State opted for
parallel medium.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn6" title=""><span>[6]</span></a>
As experience elsewhere demonstrates, both dual medium and parallel
medium hold the real risk that over the medium term English would drive
out the regional or national language.</span></p>
<p><span>On 16 September 1993 Minister of National Education Piet Marais
warned De Klerk that ‘education was not the priority among our
negotiators, which it should be’. He added that in informal talks he had
with ANC negotiators he gained the clear impression they ‘displayed an
intolerance towards Afrikaans and to the demand that the Afrikaans
universities could continue to imbue their mission with a cultural
content’. </span></p>
<p><span>He urged De Klerk to have a list compiled of bottom lines and
undertakings the NP had given to its voters and to indicate which of
them it had met. At that stage all the main issues related to higher
education had already been settled.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn7" title=""><span>[7]</span></a> De Klerk urged Marais to talk to the ANC negotiators about reopening the issue, but Marais found no one interested.</span></p>
<p><span>Language is of vital importance to all minority groups. Without
the language being the medium of instruction at some schools and
universities, the group, and with it the community inexorably
disintegrates. </span></p>
<p><span>I am not and have never been a member of the Broederbond, but
in the 1990s I was grateful that the Broederbond was still functioning
because I was convinced it would help to ensure that the new government
would guarantee the right to receive education in Afrikaans at both
school and university level. But even in the final stage of the
negotiations the NP did not make sure all the loopholes were closed for
those majoritarians in the ANC –and I believe this faction was comprised
mostly of Kader Asmal and some other members of the ANC’s exile
faction- who drove the agenda of English as the only effective national
language.</span></p>
<p><span>In the negotiations for a final constitution some NP members
became increasingly concerned about the vagueness on the issue of
language of instruction at both schools and universities. Jacko Maree,
who was one of them, told me that he and some colleagues approached
Ramaphosa, chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly, about their
concerns. He pointed out that the NP negotiators had left him in the
dark over the importance their party attached to education.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn8" title=""><span>[8]</span></a> </span></p>
<p align="left"><span lang="EN-US">And indeed when the Constitutional
Court referred the draft final constitution back to Parliament the NP
raised no concerns about the language issue. The ANC had no reason to
believe that the NP was unhappy about it.</span></p>
<p align="left"><span lang="EN-US">It was the DA under Tony Leon and
Helen Zille who took up the issue of access to Afrikaans-medium schools
and universities as a right on which citizens could rely.</span></p>
<p align="left"><span lang="EN-US">Part of the problem lies with the
Afrikaner community, The loss of power and the disintegration of the NP
have led to a state comparable to a wheel whose hub had been removed.
The rim is still there but the spokes are lying about and no one knows
how to put the hub back. It is extremely difficult to mobilise
Afrikaans-speakers of all colours on the vital issue of the
constitutionally protected right to receive education in one of the
official languages.</span></p>
<p align="left"><span lang="EN-US">What makes matters worse is the
attitude some university principals and council chairman have, who think
the issue of language of instruction is the university’s “own affair”
on which it and it alone can decide.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Dr. Rolf Stumpf who was at one stage Deputy Vice
Chancellor of Stellenbosch University put the opposite view well: “No
higher-level development could occur without the Afrikaans-speaking
community’s active co-operation. As regards the issue of diversity he
said: “I have always believed that Stellenbosch should remain an
Afrikaans university from a national-diversity perspective – diversity
clearly implies much more than just race and gender. Language coupled
with culture are also important considerations for diversity.”</span><b><span></span></b></p>
<p align="left"><span lang="EN-US">Sadly the current Stellenbosch
University council and management happen to think that rising on the
world rankings of universities is of greater importance. </span></p>
<p><span lang="AF">In 2017 several eminent scholars warned against the
obsession of top South African universities with the ranking system in
which only well-endowed universities could effectively compete. </span></p>
<p><span lang="AF">Not only do our universities lack the resources to
compete in the world university rankings but it aslso leads to the
neglect of the communities that they were supposed to serve in the first
place. Abroad, several experienced university administrators begun
expressing severe doubt about the value of such rankings except for
well-endowed top universities. </span></p>
<p><span lang="AF">The list published by the Centre for World University
Rankings show that between 2016 and 2017 the ranking of the top South
African universities all fell by twenty points or more.</span></p>
<p><b><span>Drop in ranking of some of top SA universities, 2015-2017</span></b><span>:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px"><span>University of Witwatersrand to 176th</span></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px"><span>University of Cape Town to 265th, </span></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px"><span>University of Stellenbosch to 329th</span></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px"><span>University of Pretoria to 697th </span></p>
<p><span>The International Centre for World University Rankings, which ranks a thousand universities shows SU falling from 330<sup>th</sup> globally (3<sup>rd</sup> in South Africa) in 2017 to 448 5<sup>th </sup>in South Africa) in 2018.<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn9" title=""><span>[9]</span></a></span></p>
<p><span lang="AF">Philip Altbach and Ellen Hazelkorn sounded this
warning: “The ranking system perverts the true function of the
university: namely to transfer the knowledge and skills the graduates
would need in the communities they would one day serve.”<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn10" title=""><span lang="AF">[10]</span></a></span></p>
<p><span lang="AF">By 2018 Afrikaans was used as a language of
instruction in all courses at only one of the country’s 37 university
campuses (the Potchefstroom campus of University of the North-West). At
Stellenbosch University a fifth of the lecturers recently indicated that
they are unable to teach in Afrikaans, puting a huge question mark
behind management’ claim that there will always be a place for
Afrikaans. </span></p>
<p><span lang="AF">In the History department, established in 1904, where
I was first a student and then a lecturer for many years, no
Afrikaans-medium teaching takes place. A Dutch/Afrikaans history
tradition, of which I feel very much part, is on the brink of
extinction. </span></p>
<p><span>The community that has suffered most is the Afrikaans-speaking
brown people forming a majority language community in the Western Cape. </span></p>
<p><span>In the mid-1980s large numbers of black students started
flocking to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) established in
terms of the apartheid policy for the brown people. It put the
management under huge pressure to replace Afrikaans with English as
medium of instruction. Recently Jaap Durand, Deputy Vice Chancellor at
the time, recounted these events as follows: </span></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px"><span>‘Our experience at UWC was that
when we allowed blacks as students, although it clashed with government
policy, they began to flock in large numbers to UWC. As a result we were
compelled to make English the primary medium of instruction. The result
was that the academic performance of our brown students declined
markedly. Their limited command of English was a serious handicap. The
ability of most blacks to communicate in the class rooms were equally
poor. I make no apology for our decision. UWC was in the throes of our
battle against apartheid and we had to accept the consequences of our
decision. As a result we were not prepared to subject the issue to
thorough research. But in retrospect I would say that I am not far off
the mark were I to assert that the brown Afrikaans-speaking students
were significantly disadvantaged as a result of our decision.”<a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftn11" title=""><span>[11]</span></a></span></p>
<p><span>Presently the brown community</span><span> has the lowest
participation rate in university education. Part of the reason is the
low income of their parents, while another is the tendency of parents to
choose English as medium of instruction even if the home language is
Afrikaans. More than 50 per cent of the Afrikaans-speaking youths of the
brown community attend English – medium schools. But there is clearly a
burgeoning interest in Afrikaans in this community. At present the
largest undergraduate class in Afrikaans is at UWC. </span><span></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">In 2013 the Council on Higher Education commissioned a
study to establish the success rate of the different population groups
in studying for bachelor degrees during the period 1970 to 2010.The
percentage of white and Indian students awarded bachelor degrees rose
from 18% to 29%. The figure for blacks dropped from 11% to 9% and that
of brown students sank from 10% in 1970 to 6% in 2010. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">The signs are that the performance of the latter
group is deteriorating further. These figures underline the importance
of mother tongue education. Desperate remedial measures are needed and
it starts with the medium of instruction.</span><span></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">In the case of Stellenbosch University one can think
of establishing a fixed Afrikaans-medium stream and a fixed English
medium stream. Students apply for a particular stream and should not be
allowed to switch streams during their undergraduate studies. On high
school level such a policy has been applied with great success by Grey
College in Bloemfontein.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">If one uses the existing facilities for twelve instead of eight courses the cost could be as low as 4% of the budget. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Mr Ramaphosa’s call “Send me” has made us prick up
our ears. Nothing will ensure the whole hearted co-operation of the
Afrikaans - speaking community with his presidency more than offering a
fixed, secure and sustainable place for Afrikaans both at school and
university level. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Let me end with a story. In January 2000 I wrote a
letter on behalf of a couple of organisations complaining about the
downscaling of Afrikaans by the Mbeki government. He acknowledged the
letter and said that he had introduced an office in the presidency
dealing specifically with language and cultural issues. It was headed by
Jacob Zuma, the Vice President. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">On the appointed hour I arrived in Shell House
accompanied by Dr. Van Zyl Slabbert and Mr. Ton Vosloo. I few moments
later Zuma arrived. He asked: “What can I do for you gentlemen? I am
just the baggage carrier of the ANC.”</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">There was no official present to take notes and we never had any response to our requests. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">When I told Jakes Gerwel the story he smiled wryly and said. “That is Jacob Zuma for you.”</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Mr. Ramaphosa: “We don’t want any Jacob Zumas to deal
with the vital issue of language, which so important to us as the
Afrikaans - speaking community. We also don’t want any other baggage
carrier in the presidency instructed with the task of setting up a toy
telephone to talk to the minorities. We want you. I can assure you the
rewards will be rich.” </span></p>
<div><strong>Footnotes:</strong><br clear="all"><hr width="33%" size="1" align="left">
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref1" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[1]</span></a> Michael Ignatieff, <i>Isaiah Berlin: A life</i> (London: Vitage, 1998), p.227.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref2" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[2]</span></a> Pieter Kapp, <i>Draer van ’n droom: Die geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, 1909-2009 </i>(Hermanus: Hemel en See Boeke, 2009), pp. 139-42.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref3" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[3]</span></a> SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, <i>Nuusbrief</i>, 33, 3, 1993.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref4" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[4]</span></a> Lawrence Schlemmer, ‘Liberalism in South Africa’, Milton Shain (ed.), <i>Opposing Voices: Liberalism and Opposition in South Africa </i>(Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2006), p. 86.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref5" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[5]</span></a> Welsh, <i>The Rise and Fall of Apartheid</i>, p. 540.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref6" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[6]</span></a> Hermann Giliomee and Lawrence Schlemmer, <i>’n Vaste plek vir Afrikaans: Taaluitdagings op kampus</i> (Stellenbosch: Sunmedia, 2007,pp. 36-43.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref7" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[7]</span></a>
Letter from PG Marais to FW de Klerk and a memo from Marais to H
Giliomee, 16 September 1993, and personal communication of the same
date.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref8" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[8]</span></a> Interview with Jacko Maree, NP Member of Parliament, 21 April 1998.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref9" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[9]</span></a> International Centre for World University Rankings. 2017-18 edition</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref10" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[10]</span></a> “Why universities should quit the ratings game,” <i>University World News,</i> issue 442, Januay 2017.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/cyril-ramaphosa-and-the-language-challenge#_ftnref11" title=""><span lang="EN-GB">[11]</span></a> E-mail communication, 3 April 2016</p>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="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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