Court ruling misses the mark on language rights
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
University World News
Publication Date
1-19-2018
Abstract
(Excerpt)
The South African Constitutional Court’s recent decision upholding the University of the Free State’s move toward English courses, though intended to ease racial tensions and promote integration, is long on memory but short on constitutional vision for language rights across the education spectrum. In the end, its use of language as a proxy for race and its reliance on English to transform society misses the mark on a number of key points.
Language has been a flashpoint in South African politics since the Afrikaner descendants of the early Dutch settlers forged a language-based national identity in opposition to British rule. The black population in turn embraced English as the language of resistance and redress against the horrors of Afrikaner apartheid.
In the past several years, these tensions have come to a head in court cases over the language of instruction at historically Afrikaans universities. The case against the University of the Free State, or UFS, is the first to reach the Constitutional Court.
Comments
Available at: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20180117110720340