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Wa ntlwaela! Lesufi tells Hofmeyr in twar over Afrikaans ‘genocide’ </h1>
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Citizen reporter </div>
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<img src="https://citizen.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/lesufi-557x418.jpg" alt="Panyaza Lesufi Photo: Tshegofatso Ngobeni" class="gmail-img-responsive">
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Panyaza Lesufi Photo: Tshegofatso Ngobeni </p>
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The MEC says those who don’t support his language policy are the same
ones who run to New Zealand where there are no Afrikaans schools. </h2>
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<p>Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi and Afrikaans musician Steve
Hofmeyr were on Saturday morning involved in a Twitter argument over
what the latter referred to as a “genocide” of his mother tongue.</p>
<p>Hofmeyr said: “The greatest modern killer of Afrikaans, second only
to consenting Afrikaners, is Panyaza Lesufi. I’ll fix that at the 2030
TRC”, a tweet which did not sit well with the MEC.</p>
<span class="gmail-twitter-tweet gmail-twitter-tweet-rendered" id="gmail-twitter-widget-0" style="display:block;max-width:100%;width:500px;min-width:220px;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px"></span><blockquote class="gmail-twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The greatest modern killer of Afrikaans, second only to consenting Afrikaners, is Panyaza <a href="https://twitter.com/Lesufi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Lesufi</a>. I'll fix that at the 2030 TRC.</p>
<p>— Steve Hofmeyr (@steve_hofmeyr) <a href="https://twitter.com/steve_hofmeyr/status/1068221173681610752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p>“Mara Steve Hofmeyr <em>wa ntlwaela</em>!” said the MEC, who added
that all he was doing was to call for all languages to be treated
equally and for all children, regardless of race or language, to study
under one roof.</p>
<p>“Is that killing Afrikaans? Non-racialism is the future whether you
like it or not, it will happen. South Africa belongs to all of us,” he
said.</p>
<p>Hofmeyr, however, said if Lesufi really wanted to improve the
education system, he would build more schools instead of “killing off”
good schools.</p>
<p>“You are calling for Marxism and genocide. Your government treats heritage and monuments the same.”</p>
<span class="gmail-twitter-tweet gmail-twitter-tweet-rendered" id="gmail-twitter-widget-1" style="display:block;max-width:100%;width:500px;min-width:220px;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px"></span><blockquote class="gmail-twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="de">Eintlik wena wa phapha! Wa speeta! <a href="https://t.co/escLx7ejIk">https://t.co/escLx7ejIk</a></p>
<p>— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lesufi/status/1068771511551561728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Twitter user <span class="gmail-username gmail-u-dir gmail-u-textTruncate" dir="ltr">@johanbmi,
who was in agreement with Hofmeyr, asked Lesufi why there were no
Afrikaans speaking teachers for all subjects in Soweto schools if he was
really fighting for all languages to be treated equally. </span></p>
<p>“Why are there not Afrikaans speaking teachers in all English medium
schools? Or is it only Afrikaans medium schools that must be forced
open?” he asked.</p>
<p>But Lesufi said he could not answer the Twitter user’s question,
sending him to his “apartheid monsters who created a divided society and
only prioritised one language” for answers.</p>
<p>Lesufi said his fight was about breaking the “apartheid mentality” which only sought to promote separate development.</p>
<p>“We don’t have Afrikaans nor English schools in SA, we have South
African schools. Why do you run to New Zealand where there’s no
Afrikaans when you leave South Africa?”</p>
<span class="gmail-twitter-tweet gmail-twitter-tweet-rendered" id="gmail-twitter-widget-2" style="display:block;max-width:100%;width:500px;min-width:220px;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px"></span><blockquote class="gmail-twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">You should then know better. After some Afrikaans
speaking people oppressed, killed and exploited us and even stolen our
properties why should we tolerate them? We do so for peace and
reconciliation but you continue to insult us and refuse to live
together. So ironic</p></blockquote></div></div>
<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>