If you are under the impression that the Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande, hates Afrikaans, then you may be wrong. This follows accusations by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that the Minister hates the language.
The Minister’s spokesperson, Ishmael Mnisi, says Nzimande doesn't hate Afrikaans and regards it as one of the official languages in South Africa.
He doesn't hate Afrikaans, but what he hates is Afrikaans being used as a means for exclusion and closing of opportunities for other learners within our institutions.
He continued to say that Afrikaans is recognized as much as all the other official languages in the country's draft language policy for the post-schooling education training sector.
The Spokesperson believes that in terms of use in institutions of higher learning, the language should be placed on an equal footing with other African languages.
He further said that, historically, language has been used to undermine other cultures and that this is what the Higher Education Department is trying to avoid by favouring the use of all indigenous languages in universities.
Earlier this week, the DA filed a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission against Nzimande over what it described as hate and unconstitutional insistence on defining Afrikaans as a foreign language in South Africa.
However, Mnisi still maintains that the department does not know where the complaint comes from and that they are waiting for proof of the allegation so that they can respond accordingly.
The contention around language policy in South African universities was reignited following the Constitutional Court's ruling against Unisa that Afrikaans cannot be phased out as a medium of teaching and learning at the university.
The matter had been ongoing since 2016 between Unisa and Afriforum
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