South Africa: Protesters tape mouths shut

[Harold Schiffman]

Protesters tape mouths shut
21/08/2008 21:19  - (SA)

Pretoria - A handful of members of the civil rights group AfriForum
protested outside the Department of Education in Pretoria on Thursday.

Chief executive officer of AfriForum Youth, Ernst Roets, said the
demonstration was in aid of language promotion.

"It is in the promotion of language, not only Afrikaans, but other
indigenous languages, particularly in schools and tertiary
institutions," he said.

He added that research conducted by AfriForum indicated that people
performed better if they were taught in their mother tongue.

The group accused the department of "gross negligence" with regards to
promoting mother tongue education.

Among issues raised in their memorandum, AfriForum expressed concern
that many students were deprived of access to tertiary education
because of a language policy that only provided for English tuition.

The protesters, including University of Pretoria students, taped their
mouths shut with black tape while brandishing placards that read: "Are
all languages not equal?"

Receiving the memorandum on the department's behalf, Professor Molefe
Ralenala, said the department would look at the issues raised in the
document.

 http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2380367,00.html




-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
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. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************