[lg policy] South Africa: English the language of Unisa – for now

[Harold Schiffman]

English the language of Unisa – for now
News / 22 September 2016, 06:15am
Zelda Venter

Pretoria - First-year students enrolling at Unisa for 2017 will have to
make peace with the fact that they will study in English – for now.

The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, on Wednesday turned down an application
by AfriForum to suspend the implementation of the English-only language
policy.
File picture: Independent Media. Credit: INDEPENDENT MEDIA

But while the lobby group lost round one, it is set on fighting the policy
further in court and will later this year ask the court to review and set
it aside.

AfriForum wanted to provisionally interdict Unisa from implementing the new
language policy until the court had the last word. But Judge Roland
Sutherland concluded that first-year and other Afrikaans students would not
suffer irreparable harm if English remained the only medium for now.

He said if on review a court overturned the English language policy later,
Unisa could simply revert to providing tuition in Afrikaans.

According to the judge, there could be no expectation on the part of
Afrikaans-speaking first-year students enrolling up to October 21 for next
year, as they know that Unisa had an English-only policy.

AfriForum lawyer Werner Human encouraged Afrikaans-speaking students to
continue enrolling for next year, as the fight was not over. “We hope to
turn to court this year to take the language policy on review.”

Human said it was not clear whether students who were already taking some
modules in Afrikaans would be able to continue doing so next year.

He said that while it was difficult to determine how many
Afrikaans-speaking students wanted to enrol for next year, between 20 000
and 30 000 were taking some modules in the language.

In future fewer students might opt for the Afrikaans route as a medium of
tuition and the language might fade out.

However, the fight was on for now as some students wanted to undertake
their studies in Afrikaans, and this choice had been taken away from them.

In July AfriForum lost its first round on a technical point to
provisionally interdict Unisa from implementing its new language policy
when the court struck the matter from the roll, saying it was found not to
be urgent.

The group earlier argued that the decision made by the Unisa senate
declaring the university an English-only institution was procedurally
flawed.

But Judge Sutherland said a debate about the role of Afrikaans at Unisa as
a language of learning and tuition had been ongoing since 2013.

He said it was also not in dispute that Unisa, as a public education
institution, had the lawful authority to make policy about the language of
tuition.

Unisa vice-chancellor Professor Mandla Makhanya issued a circular in June
announcing that the new policy for the 2017 academic year was that learning
was now only in English.

Judge Sutherland said it was notable that provision was made in the
circular for a phasing out of the use of Afrikaans, allowing existing
students who had already begun study in modules using that language to
complete them in the subsequent three years.

The judge said he understood the law to be that due care must be taken not
to disrupt the services which statutory bodies render by interdicting their
functions unless there were sound reasons to risk a disruption, if any
would indeed eventuate.

He said Afrikaans first-year students who had no choice but to face up to
an English environment at Unisa next year did not differ from other
potential students whose mother tongue was neither English nor Afrikaans,
and who constituted the overwhelming majority.

“Of course there shall be disappointments and inconvenience at being unable
to choose Afrikaans in any undergraduate course. But that is already an
occupational hazard of any student at Unisa who prefers Afrikaans because
only 300 of the 2 300 possible modules to choose from are offered in
Afrikaans,” the judge concluded.

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/english-the-language-of-unisa--for-now-2071299


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