Afrikaans under threat in languages bill

carstensdj

carstensdj

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http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Afrikaans-under-threat-in-languages-bill-20120202

Cape Town - The status of Afrikaans as an official language in state departments is at risk if the latest version of the South African languages bill is passed.

Even in provinces where it is the language mainly spoken by residents, such as the Western Cape and Northern Cape, national state departments will have to use three languages - of which two have to be previously disadvantaged African languages.

This will mean that the state department will have to choose between Afrikaans and English to use alongside the two disadvantaged African languages.

In the transitional constitution it was determined that no language may be in a weaker position than before, but that stipulation was not included in the Constitution of 1996.

Debate

The bill has not yet been finalised. It is still being debated by the parliamentary portfolio committee on arts and culture and the DA on Wednesday indicated it would obtain legal advice on the matter.

“I am convinced that it will not pass the constitutional test. No language may be excluded,” said DA MP Dr Annelie Lotriet.

She said this clause could see Afrikaans being left out of the language policy. “The language spoken by most residents in a province could be excluded if departments choose English as the default language. It is worrying.”

ANC committee chairperson, Thandi Sunduza, who has on several occasions expressed her irritation about state departments using mainly English when only 8% of the population were mother tongue English speakers, said: “So what do we now do with Afrikaans? Our aim is precisely to promote our other African languages.”

Only two provincial governments, the Western Cape and Limpopo, have their own language laws.

More than three languages possible

Director general of arts and culture, Sibusiso Xaba, said the bill specified that state departments could use more than the minimum of three languages. Afrikaans could therefore easily be included.

ATKV chairperson professor Danny Titus said: “You can’t just take away people’s rights. That would be foolish.”

The committee will meet again on February 15 to further debate the bill.
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It will probably be unconstitutional, nothing to worry about here guys.
 
There appears to be a constant pressure from government to further marginalise minorities, their culture, status, opportunities and assets. They may as well ask us to leave.
 
"ANC committee chairperson, Thandi Sunduza, who has on several occasions expressed her irritation about state departments using mainly English when only 8% of the population were mother tongue English speakers, said: “So what do we now do with Afrikaans? Our aim is precisely to promote our other African languages.”
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english is the international language. xhosa and zulu (and afrikaans for that matter) are gonna mean f all if you need to be able to hold a decent conversation with someone. unless they from netherlands lol

almost all business is also done in english. I have never attended a single meeting where afrikaans, xhosa or zulu was the language of choice. If someone did speak another language, it was requested they confer in English for the meeting.

so her comment really just exposes her narrow minded and simple thinking. really pissed me off :mad:
 
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Well, if Cerneels Lourens didn't take government to court to force them to enact a language bill then we wouldn't be having this rubbish were others feel that their language will be sidelined. I think we should all blame Cerneels Lourens coz everything was fine until he decide to challenge government through the courts.

BTW. Government is only doing this language bill because they were told to do so by Judge Ben du Plessis. Now if a court tells government to create legislation that will promote all official languages and then the government does so, how then can that be unconstitutional?
 
saksakgp said:
Well, if Cerneels Lourens didn't take government to court to force them to enact a language bill then we wouldn't be having this rubbish were others feel that their language will be sidelined. I think we should all blame Cerneels Lourens coz everything was fine until he decide to challenge government through the courts.

BTW. Government is only doing this language bill because they were told to do so by Judge Ben du Plessis. Now if a court tells government to create legislation that will promote all official languages and then the government does so, how then can that be unconstitutional?
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The constitution of the provinces states that the top 3 most spoken languages have to be taken into consideration. Now government wants to implement either English or Afrikaans and 2 other 'African' languages. Meaning Either English or Afrikaans will lose out, in reality Afrikaans is going to have the shorter end of the stick here.

Now government should draft a bill yet, but that bill most be within the limits of the constitution.
 
"The Freedom Front Plus welcomes the decision of the Pretoria High Court in which the government is ordered to, within two years, fulfil its obligations in terms of setting up regulations which would regulate the use of official languages by the government. It serves as a beacon for the promotion of the equal treatment of official languages in South Africa," Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus' parliamentary spokesperson on Arts and Culture said in reaction the decision of Judge Du Plessis.

"The party wishes to congratulate Mr. Cerneels Lourens with his court application in which he asked for the government to be forced to establish a national language act. The party however pities the fact that the court did not order the government to draft a national language act but merely stipulated that the government the government fulfils its constitutional obligations and set up rules which would regulate and monitor the official use of language by the government. This obligation which the court has placed on the government is however a big step to ensure that all languages are given equal treatment," Adv. Alberts added.

The FF Plus will be closely monitoring the government to ensure that it fulfils its obligation as prescribed in Section 6(4) of the Constitution, which the government has to date been ignoring. The party will continuously remind the government to take the necessary steps in terms of the court order in order to ensure multi-lingualism in the public service. The party will also continue with its campaign to force the government to finalise and promulgate legislation on a national language policy through parliamentary questions and talks with the ANC government.
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http://www.polity.org.za/article/ff...elcoming-the-language-act-17032010-2010-03-17
 
Nicodeamus said:
The constitution of the provinces states that the top 3 most spoken languages have to be taken into consideration. Now government wants to implement either English or Afrikaans and 2 other 'African' languages. Meaning Either English or Afrikaans will lose out, in reality Afrikaans is going to have the shorter end of the stick here.

Now government should draft a bill yet, but that bill most be within the limits of the constitution.
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But you must blame Cerneels Lourens. He is the one that took government to court
 
saksakgp said:
But you must blame Cerneels Lourens. He is the one that took government to court
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I guess, I actually thought that most government forms had both Afrikaans and English on them. When I'm standing in a queue at home affairs the last thing on my mind is in what language I will be served.
 
AfriForum welcomed the High Court judgment this morning in the case of Cerneels Lourens, a lawyer of Brits, re the State’s failure to comply with its constitutional duty towards all official languages as a huge victory for language rights in South Africa. In his ruling, Judge Du Plessis unequivocally found that the state neglects to comply with its duty in terms of Article 6(4) of the Constitution and he ordered the Minister of Arts and Culture to see to it that the State complies with these requirements within two years.



According to Alana Bailey, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, it is a watershed case which will have a crucial bearing on the future of service delivery to South Africans in their home languages. “Currently we find that English is being promoted at the cost of the other 10 official languages,” she said. “As a result, the speakers of all other languages are being treated like second-class citizens and are being forced either to function in English, or to forfeit services and justice. This also denies the other languages the opportunity to develop further on a high function level. This judgment it a first positive step towards a better dispensation.”

Bailey congratulated Lourens with the initiative he took to bring this case to High Court. “AfriForum is of the opinion that Lourens presented a strong case and believe the mother-tongue speakers of all ten of the indigenous South African official language owe him much thanks in this regard,” she added.
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http://www.afriforum.co.za/english/...es-judgment-in-language-case-as-breakthrough/
 
Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. I personally would prefer to be served in Afrikaans, but seriously being forced to speak English is not such a big pain and 2nd class treatment as Afriforum makes it out to be.
 
English and Afrikaans are too widespoken and integrated to even consider being left out. I do think its a good idea for Xhosa or Zulu to be learnt though but not at the demise of English/Afrikaans.
 
It's worrying how these politicians get so much of our money just to spend it on petty things like this. I rate they fire the person handling this bill and use that money to buy food for people.
 
I support unified languages. English (for business and is a universal Language), Afrikaans because it's still very widely spoken, and then Zulu/Xhosa (which ever is spoken more).

Having 12 languages means that decent <insert random langauge> teachers will be few and far between. It makes things better and more integrated having at most 3 official languages.
 
And school statistics show that Afrikaans is by far the largest 1st language written by scholars. Parents and their kids are waking up to the fact that the 'black' african languages tend to be regionalised whereas the 'white' african language is spoken in far more places.
 
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