Mr FW de Klerk delivered the fifth Mathews Phosa Memorial Lecture on 11 August at the Afrikaans Language Museum. He said that language is at the root of of our existence as human beings. The right to use one’s own language is also essential for human dignity and the right to equality. “That is why the foundational principles of our Constitution so clearly protect and promote language rights”.
Mr De Klerk said that our identity as Afrikaans speakers is greatly influenced by our language. “Afrikaans was born from Dutch and quickly developed its own character in the taverns of Cape Town; in kitchens and slave lodges; and in the lonely vastness of the Karoo and the Highveld. It got its double-negative from the Huguenots and is rich in everyday words originating from Malaysia and Indonesia. Various colourful idioms developed as a direct result of our experience in Africa. Theponderous grammar of Dutch was quickly shed. It was replaced by one of the simplest and most streamlined forms of grammar of any modern language in the world.”
However, Afrikaans has a complicated history. For the first 60 years of the last century, South African politics were dominated by the struggle between “Boer and Brit”, between white people who spoke English and white people who spoke Afrikaans. Inevitably, the language became highly politicized. And it was further politicized within the framework of race and colour. Many black South Africans saw Afrikaans as the language of repression. For brown people it was often the language of exclusion, bitterness and pain. “However, Afrikaans was also the language in which we, the National Party, started to struggle with the moral challenge of ending apartheid.”
Today, Afrikaans is a dynamic language spoken by many South Africans. It has been freed of historical political connotations. It is the language of all who speak it and is no longer defined by race. It is also the third strongest language in South Africa, after Zulu and Xhosa.
Unfortunately Afrikaans is also facing serious problems and challenges. Despite the Constitution, Afrikaans is decreasingly being used in our courts and in state-related matters. “The total number of Afrikaans schools has decreased by an estimated 30% over the past 17 years.” There is also a serious decrease in Afrikaans education in the coloured community, where only 39% of learners attend Afrikaans single medium schools. Similarly, Afrikaans is under enormous pressure at universities. “Afrikaans at university level – and Afrikaans as scientific language – is under fire. Ultimately, the entire Afrikaans language community has an enormous interest in a solution that would firmly establish and maintain Afrikaans as a tertiary language of instruction”.
Mr De Klerk said that, in his opinion, “we dare not ignore the dilution of the language rights protected in the Constitution, or the decline of Afrikaans at school and university level.” “The simple fact is that the vision of multiculturalism and multilingualism in the Constitution has not been realized.”
One of the reasons for this is that the Government hadsnot taken its responsibilities with regard to language rights seriously. “The Government should have approved legislation and other measures in terms of Section 6 (4) of the Constitution long ago, in order to manage and monitor the use of official languages.”
This led to a court case by a lawyer, Mr Cornelus Lourens, in which the Court ordered the Minister to comply with the requirements in Section 6 (4) of the Constitution within two years. The result of this is the 2011 draft South African Language Act, which unfortunately makes provision for the absolute minimum to comply with the order of the Court in the Lourens case.
Mr De Klerk is of the opinion that South Africa should look at the Indian approach to multilingualism. The Indian Constitution makes provision for two national languages, Hindi and English. Each federal state has the right to accept its own official language or languages. In practice, the states create an institutional interest in the promotion of regional languages by making it a requirement that everyone who is appointed or promoted in the regional public service must be fluent in the relevant regional language. This means that local schools and universities also have an interest in ensuring that regional languages achieve their full potential.
A new South African Language Act provides an opportunity to create a similar dispensation in South Africa.
“The Constitution requires that the national government and all provincial governments must use at least two official languages. For practical purposes it can be expected that one of those two languages will be English. However, it will be unacceptable to use only one of the other languages as the second official language countrywide.”
Mr De Klerk said that Afrikaans, as the third strongest language in the country, should also enjoy full recognition. In addition, a third native language as a regional language in each province should get the same recognition.
“Such an approach would ensure that every citizen would be served in his or her language of choice. It would also create an institutional interest to learn and promote regional languages – also in local schools and universities.”
According to Mr De Klerk, the future of Afrikaans lies partly in our new Constitution – and partly in a strong and practical South African Language Act. “On the one hand, it can unite us as members of the South African nation, and on the other hand it can guarantee that our diversity will be respected.”
