[lg policy] South Africa:‘Fined R10 for speaking Xhosa’

Mon Sep 5 15:19:48 UTC 2016

‘Fined R10 for speaking Xhosa’
Cape Times / 4 September 2016, 10:40pm
*Lisa Isaacs*

A PUPIL has alleged a Cape Town school fines pupils R10 for speaking
isiXhosa. It doubled from R5 last year.

The school’s name is being withheld.

The pupil, who has asked to not be named for fear of victimisation, told
the Cape Times: “The student leaders will write your name and write the
amount of money next to it. If you don’t pay the fine, you get detention,”
she said.

According to her, the school’s reasoning for enforcing this rule was to
better their English marks.

The pupil’s mother confirmed her daughter had been fined for speaking her
home language.

She said rules at the school had remained the same for years and parents
had not questioned them.

But the school principal said last night: “In the light of current events
this matter is one of serious concern. I am, however, able to say that in
our code of conduct, admission and language policy, no mention is made of
fining learners for speaking languages other than English. No mention
exists of this in any staff meeting minutes or school management team
minutes.

“We encourage learners to speak English at school to aid with their
language skills in this subject. However, we do also offer Xhosa and
Afrikaans as first additional language subjects at our school.

“In my eight months at the school, I have made it known to the girls that I
am very approachable. And though many of the girls have come and discussed
issues with me in my office, no one has brought any complaint regarding a
fine for speaking a language other than English to my attention.”

Provincial Education Department spokesperson Jessica Shelver said it was
the first their office has heard of the allegations and district officials
had been requested to visit the school to investigate.

She said claims of racism and discrimination were taken seriously by the
department.

This comes as allegations continue to emerge about discriminatory policies
at schools across the country.

Sans Souci Girls’ High School pupils, who receive demerits for speaking
isiXhosa, would today hand over a memorandum demanding the changes they
want to see in the school’s code of conduct.

Protests erupted at the school last week after the girls spoke out about
institutionalised racism perpetuated through the code.

The girls say the school rules do not accommodate their natural hair, and
they are not allowed to speak their home language if it is not English.

Many of the girls showed they had been given a demerit for speaking
isiXhosa in their yellow merit book.

Alice Mbongwa, the parent of a Sans Souci pupil, said the girls and parents
would meet tonight to map out the way forward to a transformed school.

She said the pupils and parents would call for the scrapping of yellow
merit books the girls had to carry with them at all times, which some have
called a dompas – the hated permit from the apartheid regime without which
blacks were not allowed to enter white areas.

And the memorandum would include the call for the removal of Charmaine
Murray as principal.

“There is a strong emphasis from parents that we feel we don’t want to see
Murray there. There’s no way the relationship can be rebuilt.

“Her presence brings back bad memories for the pupils because she was the
enforcer (of the code of conduct).

“We are calling for the code of conduct to be improved and inclusive. It is
currently an oppressive code of conduct.”

Education MEC Debbie Schäfer has given the school until the end of this
month to come up with a new code of conduct. A department official would
oversee the process as an investigation continues into the serious
allegations of racism and discrimination at the school.

http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/fined-r10-for-speaking-xhosa-2064388

-- 
**************************************
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
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20160905/bf113e31/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
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