In a debate between an Afrikaner community leader and the South African National Civic Organisations (Sanco) chairperson Raliphi George Master Push Xolelizwe on the future of Afrikaans schools, held on 4 June at the Mosupatsela Senior Secondary School, the Afrikaans community accused the education department of unfairly targeting its schools.
The veteran Master Push Xolelizwe responded with counter-accusations, saying Afrikaans schools were becoming exclusively white spaces and that Afrikaners were really not defending their language at schools; instead they were defending their territory. While the debate went some way toward highlighting the country’s political grievances I empathised with the icon Xolelizwe because his problem has less to do with the Afrikaner community defending its territory than with black African communities increasingly endorsing the dominance of English and Afrikaans in previously white suburban schools.
The debate reminded me of recent event at my son’s primary school in Roodepoort – the majority of parents of colour vehemently rejected an opportunity presented by the school governing body to introduce at least one African language into the curriculum. The initiative had been prompted by the recognition of fundamental changes in the school’s demographics which demanded that the body take corrective measure by introducing one or more indigenous languages. Following a heated debate, parents voted overwhelmingly to keep Afrikaans as the second language of instruction. For a start, they could not agree on which alternative language would be suitable.
Other speakers rejected the call for change by saying that the time was not ripe to yank Afrikaans out of the curriculum. Still others said the lack of industrial and economic power in black African hands meant that their children would struggle to find employment if the school abandoned Afrikaans because Afrikaners were still the captains of industry and owners of the economy. So democracy prevailed. Afrikaans was returned by the same generation that fought tooth and nail against the dominance of that language, and buried thousands who were murdered by the apartheid regime in trying to ram this very language down our throats.
Which brings me to conclude that the Afrikaans community has no reason to worry. It does not need to lift a finger to save Afrikaans because black Africans have taken it upon themselves to save it. The man facing an uphill battle is Master Push, along with his team, who suddenly has to convince black Africans of why it is important for their children to learn their own languages.
Will anyone join them defending our vernacular? I wonder.
