Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 2016-07-26

An urgent application to stop Unisa from implementing a new language policy scrapping Afrikaans at the institution is expected to be heard in the high court in Pretoria today.

The application by civil rights organisation AfriForum on behalf of the Unisa Forum for Afrikaans is to get the university council to withdraw the policy and grant,about 24 000 Afrikaans students the right to be instructed and examined in their mother tongue.

AfriForum Deputy Chief Executive officer Alana Bailey says that Unisa is the only option for many Afrikaans speaking people to improve their qualifications.

“Unisa’s student body was composed mainly of students who studied later on in life, who had difficult personal and financial circumstances and some who lived in rural areas or outside the country.”

The court action by AfriForum follows the institution of distance learning’s announcement in April that it was removing Afrikaans at the start of the 2017 academic year.

The University of Pretoria also recently changed its language policy, removing Afrikaans from university lecture halls, inviting the wrath of AfriForum Youth, which has threatened to take the matter to the Constitutional Court.

Twitter: @thedabhelia

(Edited By Faizel Patel)