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Is there room for a language-based university? Should a language be used to perpetuate racist agendas?
Just when a university is supposed to be a leveller in our society, an institution that closes the gap between rich and poor, should we unearth another form of racism by allowing an Afrikaans-only university?
The answer is: No.
I, along with many South Africans, am not opposed to the Afrikaans language or Afrikaner culture and its trappings.
But we will never support those who want to hijack this language, like they did during the dark days of apartheid, to conceal their hatred of a democratic South Africa.
To make matters worse, those involved in building this Afrikaans-only university have a horrible history of anti-transformation.
They defend the apartheid flag, support the music of Steve Hofmeyr, despise affirmative action, represent only Afrikaans speakers in labour disputes and challenge any promotion of blacks in labour matters.
The post-apartheid education policy is based on the Constitution. Among its objectives is the redress of past imbalances and addressing education that is based on race.
The democratic government’s most dramatic stride towards equalising institutions of learning – dismantling 15 distinct education departments and creating a single, nonracially based one – came about in the early heady days of democracy.
For me, it is a historical principle.
I am Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for education because of Beyers Naudé, a man of the cloth who was rejected by his people and expelled by an Afrikaans-only church, the Dutch Reformed Church or Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, better known as the NGK, just because he wanted it to open its doors to all South Africans.
He believed that we must live together as South Africans.
Read: Linguistic rights must be restored in SA
My relationship with “Oom Bey” began during the state of emergency of 1988, when I was detained without trial at Modderbee prison for leading a class boycott against apartheid education.
After my release, in a letter written in Afrikaans, my school was instructed to expel me and other student leaders.
With a possible bleak future, the thought of going to exile to join Umkhonto weSizwe lingered in my mind – until someone told me about this progressive Afrikaner, Beyers Naude, then the general secretary of the SA Council of Churches.
When I met him, even before I could end narrating my story, he authorised that I be granted a bursary to enrol at a school associated with his church so that I could conclude my matric, and later go on to study at what was then called the University of Natal.
Imagine if Oom Bey would have told me that he was only assisting Afrikaners to access education.
Where would this Sepedi-speaking boy be today? Surely not an MEC for education.
So, should l betray the soul of Uncle Beyers when those with deep pockets want to build a language-based university in the sea of inequality and poverty, and the ticket to enter this university is that you must speak Afrikaans or else you don’t qualify?
No ways!
Lest we forget, this Afrikaans-only university was conceived soon after the Constitutional Court saw nothing wrong with the universities of South Africa, Pretoria, Free State, Stellenbosch and Potchefstroom changing their language policies to accommodate all South Africans.
Instead of supporting the apex court, they angrily decided to use their apartheid-acquired wealth and skills to desecrate the memories of people like Naudé, who believed in an all-inclusive South Africa.
It is a pity that even under a democratic state, we are still being insulted and the overwhelming majority of our people still live in squalor not out of their own making, but because of the historic injustices of apartheid education.
Let us heed President Nelson Mandela’s inspirational advice when he said: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
More than 25 years into our democratic dispensation, any school district, university or tertiary institution that wishes to short-change students is anathema to our society and a disgrace to the Constitution of the republic.
The future South Africa we want must include everyone, not exclude others.
I am sustained by my conviction that nonracialism is not wrong, and that we are better off together than being a divided nation.
I support multilingualism where all languages are protected and developed, not only the language of the haves, while the have-nots can only be taken care of by the state.
Just imagine if we were to render services on the basis of who speaks which language, rather than who is South African?
God help us all.
Panyaza Lesufi is Gauteng’s MEC for education
