Comments by the mayor of Potchefstroom criticising the Aardklop Arts Festival were "unreasonable" and "unfounded", Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said on Tuesday.
This comes after Mayor Andrew Maphetle said: "One cannot conduct nation building with a festival that is predominantly Afrikaans."
Mulder said Aardklop was a cultural festival with voluntary attendance which had nothing to do with race.
"To deny the Afrikaans community a predominantly Afrikaans cultural festival because it is apparently contradictory to nation-building, divides people and does not only go against the Constitution, but in fact causes alienation and polarisation of Afrikaans speakers."
One of the Sections which the Freedom Front Plus had negotiated into the Constitution was section 31 in the Bill of Rights.
The Bill says: "Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be denied the right, with other members of that community - to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and use their language."
Afrikaans speakers were in the minority at their places of work, in Parliament, and everywhere they went. But if they then enjoyed Aardklop in Potchefstroom, the mayor criticised it.
"A country with a variety such as South Africa asks for accommodation and not assimilation," said Mulder. - Sapa
This comes after Mayor Andrew Maphetle said: "One cannot conduct nation building with a festival that is predominantly Afrikaans."
Mulder said Aardklop was a cultural festival with voluntary attendance which had nothing to do with race.
"To deny the Afrikaans community a predominantly Afrikaans cultural festival because it is apparently contradictory to nation-building, divides people and does not only go against the Constitution, but in fact causes alienation and polarisation of Afrikaans speakers."
One of the Sections which the Freedom Front Plus had negotiated into the Constitution was section 31 in the Bill of Rights.
The Bill says: "Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be denied the right, with other members of that community - to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and use their language."
Afrikaans speakers were in the minority at their places of work, in Parliament, and everywhere they went. But if they then enjoyed Aardklop in Potchefstroom, the mayor criticised it.
"A country with a variety such as South Africa asks for accommodation and not assimilation," said Mulder. - Sapa
