The Democratic Alliance (DA) has welcomed the Supreme Court of Appeal’s rejection of the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) decision to remove Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. The SCA has declared the university’s new language policy unconstitutional and unlawful.
In 2017, Unisa made English the only language of instruction at the institution. Lobby group AfriForum took Unisa to court, arguing that the policy left nearly 30 000 Afrikaans-speaking students without the option to be taught in their mother-tongue.
The DA’s spokesperson on Higher Education, Science, and Technology and Member of Parliament, Belinda Bozzoli says the ruling is a victory for mother-tongue education and language diversity at tertiary institutions across the country and sets an important precedent for the protection of language rights in the country.
She says Afrikaans, like all of the country’s indigenous languages, deserves equal protection and academic development.
The DA has always been a strong proponent of mother-tongue education and we will never waiver from the constitutional principle that every South African has the right to be taught in the official language of their choice, where reasonably practicable.
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) July 1, 2020
