Nzimande dismisses DA claims of discrimination against Afrikaans

The DA has lodged a complaint with UNESCO over the government’s classification of Afrikaans and Khoekhoegowab as “foreign" languages in the Language Policy Framework for Higher Education.

The party’s Leon Schreiber says through the intervention of the United Nations, it hopes to force Nzimande and the government to recognise Afrikaans as well as the Khoi, San and Nama languages as full-fledged indigenous South African languages.

But in a statement released by the Higher Education Department on Wednesday, Nzimande strongly denied the accusations.

“Minister Nzimande has on numerous occasions, through media statements and through direct Parliamentary questions, replied to the Dr Leon Schreiber and the Democratic Alliance. At the crux of the minister’s response, is the fact that Afrikaans and other languages perceived not to be given attention in the Language Policy Framework for Higher Education Institutions does not discriminate against any South African language.

“To the contrary, the policy framework affirms all South African languages and purposefully advocates for their scholarly development,” the statement said.

The department says the revised policy framework seeks to promote the development of historically underdeveloped African languages.

“The Khoe languages are explicitly referenced in the policy as languages that also requires support. This is contrary to the claim by the DA that Khoe languages are excluded for scholarly development.

“Afrikaans and other languages perceived not to be given attention in the policy framework should be read within the broader context of what the policy framework seeks to achieve and not narrowly within the confines of the definition section of the policy.

“Furthermore, Minister Nzimande said that Afrikaans must not be used as a means to pursue a narrow and racist Afrikaner nationalist agenda, as was the case under apartheid.”

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