[lg policy] South Africa: ANC 'has no plans to destroy Afrikaans'

[Harold Schiffman]

ANC 'has no plans to destroy Afrikaans'
2012-03-02 10:33


    Afrikaans under threat in languages bill

Johannesburg - The ANC says it has no plans to destroy the Afrikaans
language, Beeld newspaper reported on Friday. This was in reaction to
criticism of the governing party's language development policy. The
ANC used its majority in the parliamentary portfolio committee on arts
and culture on Wednesday to reject a suggestion that it could afford
better protection to the Afrikaans language.

A controversial clause in the policy - according to which government
departments have to provide services in at least three languages, two
of which have to be previously disadvantaged and indigenous - received
a majority vote.

New language policy

The clause would now form part of the new language policy, the
newspaper reported. The DA and the Freedom Front Plus had suggested
the use of at least four languages. ANC committee chairperson Thandile
Sunduza said she agreed in principle that the destruction of a
language could result in the destruction of a nation.

"And yet, that is what apartheid did. It started destroying our
people's names and giving them Western names - that's how you destroy
the identity of a nation." She said there were important
considerations beyond simply the practical. Sibusiso Xaba, director
general of arts and culture, said the law would not discriminate
against any language. Money and capacity played an important role, and
it would be impossible to extend the target to four languages, he
said.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/ANC-has-no-plans-to-destroy-Afrikaans-20120302

-- 
**************************************
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,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list