South Africa's top six mother-tongue languages:
Zulu: 22.7%, Xhosa: 16%, Afrikaans: 13.5%, English: 9.6%, Tswana: 8%, Sotho: 7.6%

Afrikaans Dropped

A top South African university has dropped Afrikaans as its official language in favour of English. The University of Pretoria says it needs to "transform the culture" to make it "truly South African". Afrikaans language policy has historically been used to exclude black learners in a country where racism remains deeply embedded 25 years after white-minority rule ended. The word apartheid, which has now been internationalised and is in the Oxford Dictionary, is in fact an Afrikaans word.

English Preferred Language

Afrikaans is still spoken by millions, but it is hoped that this move will make the many more millions who do not speak it feel welcomed in one of the best academic institutions in the country.

English is the preferred language of instruction for many in South Africa.

"Lectures will be in English, the administration and the e-mails will also be in English. People can speak to each other in the language of their choice", says vice-chancellor and principal Professor Tawana Kupe.

"The minute we use two languages people think it is still an Afrikaans university. But it is now just a South African university".

Former students complained that lecturers refused to speak English, telling students: "If you don't understand that's not my problem." Lecturers would walk in an English lecture room and tell us "My English is bad, so I'll mostly revert to Afrikaans and if you don't understand that's not my problem," that was in 2010. Had a tough time having to understand a lot of things, had never done Afrikaans in my life

Political Reactions

South Africa's Finance Minister (a black ANC struggle hero) has publicly disagreed with the phasing out of Afrikaans, tweeting: I publicly, and in my personal capacity, DISAGREE, with the phasing out of Afrikaans as one of the mediums of teaching at the University of Pretoria. As a country, you are shooting yourselves down. You will regret it in 30 years’ time

Mboweni’s tweet elicited disparate responses. Julius Malema, the leader of the third biggest political party in South Africa, responded: "But you are becoming too much now, is no longer a joke. Arg (sic)."

Afrikaans rights group AfriForum: "It is clear that the university’s management does not understand the term ‘multilingualism’. If students on campus, in lecture rooms and even in student accommodation only use one language – namely the colonial language English – it amounts to unilingualism, not multilingualism, because there is no room for more languages in the formal university environment."

11 Official Languages

South Africa has 11 official languages - Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu.

Demand for Afrikaans-language teaching is falling, according to the University of Pretoria, which says 85% of its students came from Afrikaans-speaking households in 1992, dropping to 30% in 2015. Only 18% of students said they wanted classes in Afrikaans at the last count in 2016.

Afrikaans will be phased out over time. Students already in the pipeline will still continue getting their classes in Afrikaans.

Why can't SA adopt one African language as lingua franca

asuustrike1:
Why can't SA adopt one African language as lingua franca

Afrikaans "is" African.

TMKsouth:


Afrikaans "is" African.

I don't get please explain further

asuustrike1:

I don't get please explain further

Afrikaans originated in SA and contrary to popular belief, there are more people of colour than whites whose mother-tongue is Afrikaans.

Hence it is also an African language and should contend for lingua franca status alongside the others such as Xhosa and Zulu.

5 surprising facts about Afrikaans

Here are some weird and wonderful facts you may not know about this South African language.

1. 60% of Afrikaans speakers aren’t white.

What? Yes, it’s true. According to a study done in 2013 using data from the 2011 census, only 40% of Afrikaans speakers are white. The rest are from other races – black, coloured and Indian, the majority being coloured.

https://m.news24.com/You/Sponsored-Content/5-surprising-facts-about-afrikaans-20171101

TMKsouth:


Afrikaans originated in SA and contrary to popular belief, there are more people of colour than whites whose mother-tongue is Afrikaans.

Hence it is also an African language and should contend for lingua franca status alongside the others such as Xhosa and Zulu.

Probably you don't get it, having many lingual franca doesn't build bond among SA having a central language will. This is because it would be understood by many if not all as the case of India.

asuustrike1:

Probably you don't get it, having many lingual franca doesn't build bond among SA having a central language will. This is because it would be understood by many if not all as the case of India.

I get u. My point is that Afrikaans not be dismissed just as simply a foreign language in the debate to selecting a single Native lingua franca. It is already the most institutionally developed language.

Anyway, I find English to be the most unifying language. All the others expose well-disguised tensions that exist in SA. Zulus are already very big-headed as a black majority. As for India, they suffer from a scourge of Hindu nationalism and fundamentalism.

South Africa sending whites away

SensorVee:
South Africa sending whites away

OK

TMKsouth:


OK

Sa nothing without whites. They build joh as nessburg and Soweto. What did Black build

South Africa looks so organised and professional. just look at the pics no grime and chaotic scenes. Definitely wanna study there some day, Journalism and then work for SABC

I like Afrikaans.