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AfriForum: AfriForum in court with urgent application against Unisa’s new language policy

AfriForum: AfriForum in court with urgent application against Unisa’s new language policy
Photo by Duane

25th July 2016

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/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The civil rights organisation AfriForum will in all likelihood tomorrow bring an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court to prevent the University of South Africa (Unisa) from implementing a new language policy. This policy determines that Afrikaans will no longer be used as a medium of instruction at the University from 2017 onwards, but that English will be the only language of instruction. AfriForum will oppose this decision with further legal action.

According to Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s Deputy CEO, Unisa is the only option for many Afrikaans speaking people to improve their qualifications. “The University has a unique student corps. There are many registered students who only later in life started studying under difficult personal and financial circumstances. Some of them live in rural areas or even outside South Africa and work fulltime. The other universities in the country thus offer them no opportunities to study. This is exactly why it is crucially necessary to protect their language rights.”

Bailey is of the opinion that the verdict delivered on 21 July 2016 by the Bloemfontein High Court with regards to the language policy of the University of the Free State (UFS) underlined that a University has a constitutional duty to offer education in the language of students’ choice where it is practically achievable and furthermore also that if education is already offered in Afrikaans, it proves practical achievability. In 2015 more than 30 000 Unisa students indicated that Afrikaans is their mother tongue. A further 7 000 students mentioned that they speak both Afrikaans and English at home. Approximately 24 000 students currently receive education in Afrikaans at Unisa.

Apart from AfriForum’s objections that the University is violating the language rights of Afrikaans students, the organisation also argues that Unisa followed insufficient procedures in accepting the new language policy. No public consultation was followed, among others, even though the change in policy drastically affects Afrikaans speaking students.

With this urgent application AfriForum is trying to prevent the abovementioned policy from being implemented, seeing as prospective students are already busy taking decisions regarding enrolments in 2017 and subsequently need to have certainty about the languages offered by the University.

AfriForum will also be attempting to reverse the decisions taken by the senate and the council of the University regarding the language policy by means of legal action, as was the case with UFS.

 

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