Cape Town - Cape politician Peter Marais has entered the language fray at the Elsenburg Agricultural training facility, warning that Afrikaans cannot be likened to the Rhodes statue debacle and will neither “fall or be moved” as an “education medium”.
Marais, along with other Afrikaans activists, met the deputy director general and the chief director of Agriculture at Elsenburg about the issue of Afrikaans at the college.
Senior FF Plus politicians, including Dr Corné and Pieter Mulder, were also part of the delegation.
Marais, president of the Bruin Bemagtigings Beweging (Empowerment Movement) and co-chair of the Kaaplandse Federale Alliansie (Cape Federal Alliance) said both organisations he represents are siding with the equal treatment of English and Afrikaans.
“If black students want to be educated in English, then it is their right. But at the same time the rights of Afrikaans students should also be respected and protected,” he said.
And Marais warned that Afrikaans-speaking South Africans will not take any attack on their language lightly and will “hit back” if necessary.
“Afrikaans is not South Africa’s Rhodes statue on paper. It cannot be infected, insulted or branded as the product of colonialism. It is the language of the slaves, known as ‘kombuis Hollands’, of the Creole language. It is thus not only the language of the white man. If black students are stepping on it, then they are stepping on any hope of good neighbourliness with the 4.86 million coloured people from as far as Kakamas to Bonteheuwel and Kuruman to Mitchells Plain.
“To speak Afrikaans and to be educated in Afrikaans is not a privilege; it is a guaranteed right in the constitution. It is more than just a mere right, it is an entrenched right that cannot be changed by any parliament.”
Marais stressed that Afrikaans is not subject to affirmative action.
“Blacks were never prevented from speaking, writing or reading Afrikaans even during the days of apartheid.
“They have never been disadvantaged by Afrikaans. They freely and willingly chose not to be taught in Afrikaans solely for purposes of political expediency. How can justice then be served by denying the right to choose whether to be taught in Afrikaans?” Marais asked.
Describing the Elsenburg language saga – where black students protested against the Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and at least one white student was assaulted – as nothing but the “tyranny of the majority”, which former state president Nelson Mandela had warned against, Marais said the issue of language instruction needed tough negotiation.
Cape Argus