DA to hand over petition calling on Minister Nzimande to recognise Afrikaans as an indigenous language

12th October 2021

Today at 11:15, DA Leader John Steenhuisen and DA Shadow Minister of Public Service and Administration, Leon Schreiber, will lead a protest action outside the Tshwane offices of Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande.

The DA will hand over a petition to the Department of Higher Education to demand that Afrikaans is declared an indigenous language.

This follows the release of the Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions, which excludes Afrikaans from the definition of indigenous languages. This stands in contradiction of a recent Constitutional Court ruling that Afrikaans is indeed an indigenous language that originated within South Africa.

DA leaders and members from across the country will join this action tomorrow to demonstrate to the ANC government that Afrikaans deserves its rightful place among the country’s indigenous languages and that the DA will continue to fight for the protection of all indigenous languages in South Africa.

Details of the protest action are as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 12 October 2021
Time: 11:15
Address: 123 Francis Baard Street, Tshwane

 

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