Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande has doubled down on his stance regarding Afrikaans. After ignoring a court order that compelled Unisa to reinstate Afrikaans as a language of instruction, Nzimande claimed he was right to suggest that the dialect “was not indigenous” to South Africa.
As expected this has angered the millions of Afrikaans-speaking citizens in SA and no one is angrier than Leon Schreiber. The DA shadow minister is hellbent on holding Nzimande accountable for his contentious position and he issued a statement via Twitter that ripped into his opposite number.
“Minister Nzimande today defended his department’s Language Policy Framework for Higher Education – which hatefully and unconstitutionally classifies Afrikaans as a ‘foreign‘ language. In a disgraceful manner, Nzimande went on to imply that the DA’s quest to recognise Afrikaans as an indigenous language alongside other South African languages was somehow “racist” and would lead to exclusion and oppression.”
With no concessions coming from Nzimande, it appears the battle between him and Schreiber will continue.
Schreiber has issued an ultimatum to the ANC as a whole: He wants the party – and certain individuals – to explain their ‘motivations’ behind this viewpoint, while also suggesting that Nzimande feels Afrikaans speakers are ‘foreign’ to SA.
“Nzimande’s blind insistence that Afrikaans is foreign despite the indisputable scientific fact that the language developed in South Africa and is spoken almost exclusively in this part of the world begs the question of whether Nzimande thus regards the speakers of the language as foreign to South Africa?It is time for Nzimande to play open cards about the true motivations behind his illogical insistence on defying the Unisa ruling. Is it because he and the ANC government regards the speakers of the language and their cultures as somehow “alien” to South Africa? Or does the ANC believe that the speakers of Afrikaans do not equally belong here?”
Sources: MSN, News Chant
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