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<div><h1>Afrikaans single-medium public schools under fire</h1><p class="gmail-meta"><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news">Pretoria News</a><span> / </span><span>16 November 2018, 06:49am</span><span> / </span><span><strong>BONGANI NKOSI</strong></span></p><div><div class="gmail-social-icons"><ul><li><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Fpretoria-news%2Fafrikaans-single-medium-public-schools-under-fire-18141958" title="Share on Facebook"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/facebook-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Share on Facebook" id="gmail-article-facebook-share"></a></li><li><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=IOL&text=Afrikaans%20single-medium%20public%20schools%20under%20fire&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Fpretoria-news%2Fafrikaans-single-medium-public-schools-under-fire-18141958" title="Share on Twitter"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/twitter-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Share on Twitter" id="gmail-article-twitter-share"></a></li><li><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&title=Afrikaans%20single-medium%20public%20schools%20under%20fire&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Fpretoria-news%2Fafrikaans-single-medium-public-schools-under-fire-18141958" title="Share on LinkedIn"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/linkedin-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Share on LinkedIn" id="gmail-article-linkedin-share"></a></li><li><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/afrikaans-single-medium-public-schools-under-fire-18141958#email-share" class="gmail-show-popup" title="Share via Email"><img src="https://www.iol.co.za/assets/images/social-icons/email-rnd-ico.svg" alt="Tell a Friend" id="gmail-article-email-share"></a></li></ul></div></div><div class="gmail-article-body"><div class="gmail-sixteen-nine"><img class="gmail-imgLandScape" src="https://image.iol.co.za/image/1/process/620x349?source=https://inm-baobab-prod-eu-west-1.s3.amazonaws.com/public/inm/media/image/92251205.JPG&operation=CROP&offset=0x652&resize=3813x2137" alt="" title="Panyaza Lesufi is the Gauteng MEC for Education."></div><span class="gmail-imageCaption">Panyaza Lesufi is the Gauteng MEC for Education.</span><div class="gmail-articleBodyMore" id="gmail-article-more-body">THE
newly-published gazette determining schools feeder zones looks set to
sound a death knell for Afrikaans single-medium public schools in the
province.
<p>Announcing the feeder zone policy that will govern admissions by
2020, a tough-talking MEC Panyaza Lesufi promised that his bold move
would ensure that no pupils are excluded from schools in their vicinity
or those located within 30km from their homes. </p>
<p>Gauteng has a long history of battles between African parents and Afrikaans-medium schools over admissions. </p>
<p>Just at the beginning of this year, African parents were up in arms
when Hoërskool Overvaal in Vereeniging denied 55 of their children
access though the school was right outside their doorstep.</p>
<p>The stand-off deteriorated into protests outside the
Afrikaans-medium Overvaal, which turned ugly as police and parents
clashed. </p>
<p>Lesufi was confident that he has found a remedy for upheavals over learner admissions. </p>
<p>His magic bullet was that all schools should redraft their policies and submit them to the department. </p>
<p>“Any school that had a policy on language, admissions, uniform, hair must now resubmit those policies to the department.”</p>
<p>Lesufi denied he was gunning for Afrikaans-medium schools, but
insisted no school would be allowed to exclude learners based on
language. </p>
<p>“We’re not scrapping any language,” he said. </p>
<p>“All languages will be protected, including Afrikaans. </p>
<p>“But with the new feeder zone, if there are people that want an
additional language (in the school) you can’t close your eyes and ears.
“It doesn’t make sense when your language policy says, ‘no, we only
concentrate on (this language)‘ but your feeder zone has people that
speak another language. </p>
<p>“That is why everyone must resubmit their policies so that
we can change them or concur with them or indicate where they need to
make some changes,” Lesufi said. </p>
<p>Schools in many former whites-only communities have a language problem, said the MEC. </p>
<p>“Those houses that are surrounding Overvaal are excluded, not on the
basis that they are not within the feeder zone but because of language. </p>
<p>“This new (policy) incorporates everyone.</p>
<p>“You go to Centurion, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have schools there. </p>
<p>“The problem is that the schools that can accommodate people
(learning in) English are fewer and English is spoken by the majority. </p>
<p>“The schools (teaching in) the language of a minority are in the
majority. This feeder zone (policy) will resolve the problem,” Lesufi
said. </p>
<p>He had some stinging words for pro-Afrikaans groups that he said were
threatening to drag him to court. “They might have oppressed our
grandparents and parents and succeeded. </p>
<p>“They might have tried to oppress us and we stopped them, but they
will never oppress our children and their children’s children. That will
never happen.” </p>
<p>Lesufi said the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas) threatened to interdict the policy. </p>
<p>But Jaco Deacon, the organisation’s deputy chief executive, denied
this. However, he said Lesufi’s plans over school language policies were
in conflict with the Constitution.</p>
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<br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" 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></div>