South Africa education law: Afrikaans-speaking groups fear erosion of language

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South Africa education law: Afrikaans-speaking groups fear erosion of language


A new education law in South Africa is dividing opinions in a country with a complex racial history.

Afrikaans-speaking groups say sections of the new law will erode their language and culture.

The government says the measures will make education accessible to more children.

Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa reports from Centurion.

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50 Comments

  1. Yess! South Africa Eliminate Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, people can use it in other ways like the other native languages Zulu, Xhosa etc, but in 2024 their is no reason why Math or English should be taught using Afrikaans.

  2. This is such a weird narrative.
    As if South Africa was never a British colony and English is not the language of the colonizers in South Africa.
    As if English is a native language in South Africa.

    And as such, idiots keep on creating idiotic narratives.
    Afrikaans is not spoken in any other country. It is, in fact the only indigenous language still taught in schools in South Africa. But the narrative makes you think it is a foreign language forced onto South Africans, when the truth is that English is the foreign language. Now I understand why the British forced the implimentation of the apartheid laws and refused to allow South Africans to choose their own borders. It is starting to make more and more sense…
    The idiots are literally recolonializing South Africa and calling it freedom. What a strange world…Centralized control is colonialization: it is a top down system…

  3. This is a slap in the face of South Africa's most victimised community: the Cape Coloured community. They constitute the largest segment of Afrikaans speakers, and they are despised by the Black ethnic communities who hide behind the "legacy of apartheid" instituted by white Afrikaaners. The Coloureds should not have to endure more descrimination from the Black majority after having suffered under apartheid themselves. This is proof that racism and hatred come in many forms.

  4. It's an African country where all African people of colour are supposed to flourish. Just imagine if Africa was never colonized and South Africans were all taught English fairly with Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa etc. and all people regardless of race had the same educational opportunities, this country would've been different with no apartheid. Maybe this land would've been successful beyond our imaginations and we would've all had a fair playing field…

  5. i dont see no dutch german or any white like here why do they accept to continue clonizer or slaving system while they still free
    only the origin african language should be learned if they liked or not
    if they are instill inforced to learn the clonizer language they are not free for their country yet

  6. All rural schools receive Bantu education as they are taught in their mother tongue. I wonder how that poor child will find work based upon that???? No they don’t, thats why we have a huge unemployment rate. Shame

  7. It is a complicated scenario as South Africa has many different languages. One needs to take into consideration that is one want to yet into colleges or Universities when it comes to business mostly conducted in ENGLISH. One can speak their own home language yet to use this in schools one would have to open schools who teach in these different languages all over South Africa, or employ teachers who can converse in these different languages. A child who speaks Xhosa may want to go to an English speaking school. It would be their choice. One has to look at how will it benefit them in the business sector and workplaceand dealing with clients or customers here and abroad with all these different languages which will cause much confusion. One would constantly need hundreds of translators.

  8. That is why a Federal state may be the answer for South Africa. Regions can then choose their language in schools. There are 12 official languages in South Africa and the majority are region based.

  9. The onky people that see Afrikaans as the language of tye oppressor are those that don't speak it in their everyday lives.

    This attitude is prevalent in majority Black provinces like Gauteng in particular.

    In majority Coloured provinces like Western Cape, or Northern Cape which is 50/50, Afrikaans is spoken by the majority of residents Black, White, Coloured.

    As a Black person from a Cape province, I feel like these laws originate from Gauteng people and they are imposing their views onto our Cape identities.

  10. Why can't blacks build their own schools and carry on? For 30 years they couldn't build anything, but they want to infiltrate the functioning schools they never built. Talk about a useless fokken nasion!!

  11. This is an attack on Afrikaans schools. Period. All races are welcome in the few afrikaans schools left. All races are welcome in Afrikaans schools, but racist people who are against Afrikaans people and culture do not want this.

  12. The governing party has failed to build schools, which would have addressed the issue in the first place.
    The government does not provide, it only takes

  13. As a Xhosa speaking person I was taught in English, I cannot see why other cultures kids cannot do the same. Surely they can’t be that dom!

  14. Honestly it's a colonial language. A majority of us on South 🇿🇦 Africa don't like that language. Only a certain a few South African's can speak. So scrap it and put it in the shelves.
    It'll remain in the archives

  15. lol you diverse ones move to the functioning Afrikaans spaces, take it over and destroy it then move on to the next.. like a virus.. you don’t want “equality” you want revenge cause you lot are hopeless.. your black government can just build you a black school with all the Afrikaner taxes that have been paid

  16. There is so many Afrikaans speaking children and people why is everything always about apartheid that died 30 years ago it's time to stop with this we don't intervene with your culture so leave ours alone

  17. Who ever does the writing for you guys when it comes to south africa is either stupid or a white south africa .all your guys report are always anti black if you not calling us xenophobic ironically a term yalll hardly use for European and asian countries when they have situation with the likes of immigrants from Nigeria or other countries.maybe the Israeli are a fraction right about you

  18. Let the parents decide what language their kids need to be taught in. Let the community which surrounds that particular school be the deciding factor. Us who live in Afrikaans communities where we speak Afrikaans almost 98% of the day, why should government decide for us the medium of instruction? In our community, we certainly want our kids to be taught in our mother tongue, Afrikaans as it has always been. Don't come and decide for us, we are at peace.

  19. This country keep getting back each year less the white people the more poor this country keep getting I mean look at Uganda when idi Amin a black man kicked all the Indians out of country the whole country fall apart and later begged for them to come back 😂

  20. Why do you "want to penetrate Afrikaans schools?" Build your own. You just gave your real motive away. Julle is so opdringerig! Dis omdat julle nie dit kan vat dat ander goed regkom sonder julle nie! Why push blacks into a school and force that school to cater to those few speakers who CHOOSE to go there??!! Make your own school or go to a school whose primary language medium isn't Afrikaans! Can you hear the LIES??? He said it clearly for everyone to hear! They don't want to help learners, they want to strip them of their unique Afrikaans identity.

  21. So instead of building new schools and creating more jobs and opportunities. They would rather just piggy back off of the work of the afrikaans man just like they have for the last 30 odd years… this makes me sick; when they fail here too they will then blame the afrikaaner again somehow