Pretoria - With just two weeks left before the 40th commemoration of the June 16 youth uprisings, AfriForum has cautioned against a repeat of the “unfortunate” events – this time by the Afrikaner community.
Speaking at a debate over the language policy in public schools at an event in Tembisa on Thursday, AfriForum chief executive Kallie Kriel said: “What happened in 1976 was unfortunate. There was a backlash against what happened there, and I would urge the MEC not to make the same mistake, because there will also be another backlash and another struggle… by Afrikaans people to ensure there is a future for their children.”
On June 16, 1976, pupils in Soweto schools protested against the use of Afrikaans as a language of teaching and learning.
Kriel was debating with Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi following the Constitutional Court decision last month which ruled that the department has a final say on admission policies.
Responding to Kriel’s 1976 comments, Lesufi said: “It hurts us when people want to undervalue the costs of apartheid. It hurts if people want to say let bygones be bygones.
"You come here and say 1976 was unfortunate; move on. Who has the right to tell us to move on? I don’t want to start a race war.”
Lesufi talked about how he was arrested by the apartheid police when he was 17 and spent time in Modderbee Prison. “You walk through this township and see our people who chose to be homeless, unemployed or to stay in a shack so you can stay in your own house.
"We didn’t say we want to repossess your houses because you put us where we are. So please don’t even try to attack our commitment to a non-racial society. We have paid a heavy price for that.”
Lesufi said he wanted to assure the Afrikaans community that the department was not targeting their language.
Kriel said the organisation was worried that if Afrikaans-medium schools, which make up only 2.5 percent of all schools, were turned into dual or English-medium schools, the quality of learning and teaching would decline.
“Even if these schools Anglicise, it would not ensure quality education for everyone. By not allowing Afrikaans children to learn in their mother tongue, that is the same mistake that was made in 1976, and shouldn’t be made again.
"There are some things in life worth campaigning for and fighting for, and Afrikaans is definitely one of those.”
Kriel argued that the biggest problem was that 80 percent of schools were dysfunctional because of interference by the South African Democratic Teachers Union.
Lesufi said AfriForum could not argue about the standard of education declining as they always leave the schools when black pupils are admitted.
He also said predominantly black-populated schools were dysfunctional and didn’t have resources because of underfunding during apartheid.
He said that in 1982, the government spent R1 211 on one white pupil and R146 on a black one.
“Those who separated our education system must know that it will not be forever. You might have oppressed our grandparents and succeeded; you might have oppressed our parents and succeeded.
"Do you think you’ll oppress us? No. You’ll never succeed. You think you’ll undermine the future of our children? No, you will never succeed,” Lesufi said. He said the Afrikaans community were only interested in protecting their territory by not wanting to open their schools.
“I don’t want schools for klein baases alone. We will never allow that. If I was malicious, I would have an audit in all the Afrikaans schools, most of the children live 5km outside the radius. If I want to dismantle those schools I can do it. Do I do that? No, because I protect you.”
Kriel argued that Lesufi was using transformation and diversity as a guise to target Afrikaners. He said: “The MEC uses all these nice terms, but when you listen to him, he says ‘You oppressed our grandparents’. Who is the ‘you’ you are speaking of? It seems you want vengeance. Your government has been in power for 22 years.
"Whose fault is it that you go in class and find no teacher in the front? Afrikaans schools are soft targets while they make up only 2.2 percent of schools, and that is unfortunate because you are becoming a barrier to access to quality education to black children as well if you are focusing on the wrong target.”
Lesufi invited Kriel to go into Afrikaans communities in the next few months to assure them that their language and culture are not under threat.