Justin Pearce
AFRIKANERS battling for the survival of Afrikaans-only schools are pinning their hopes on President Nelson Mandela as constitutional negotiations draw to a close. But the African National Congress has yet to be convinced the battle for Afrikaans is not driven by a racist agenda.
In the past two weeks, representatives of Afrikaner cultural and political political parties joined together across political lines to approach Constitutional Assembly chair Cyril Rama-phosa, the ANC study group on education, and finally Mandela in an attempt to secure constitutional guarantees for state-funded schools which teach only in Afrikaans, and which preserve an Afrikaans “culture and ethos”.
But, while representatives of the groups were impressed by the cordial reception they received from Mandela, they have so far failed to convince the ANC that their aims are something other than a return to apartheid.
“Our goal is monolingual Afrikaans schools, just as there are monolingual English schools and Zulu schools,” explains Professor Piet van der Merwe of the South African Foundation for Education and Training, spokesman for the delegation. Other organisations represented included the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (FAK), the South African Federation of State-supported Schools, various Afrikaner churches, the National Party, the Freedom Front, and the Conservative Party.
Van der Merwe and other delegates emphasised their intentions were not racist, and the Afrikaans schools they envisaged would be open to all. The high emotions generated by the education question added to the urgency of solving the question before this week’s constitutional bosberaad in Arniston.
The representatives went first to Ramaphosa, who suggested they approach the ANC, given the power of the ANC vote in the Constitutional Assembly. Not reassured by the response from the ANC education working group, the Afrikaner delegation went to the president to try to invoke the legendary Madiba magic.
“Look at the springbok rugby emblem,” said Freedom Front representative Leon Louw. “The only person who saved it was Mandela.”
Louw sees Mandela as the man who will take up the cause of Afrikaans schools in the face of “ANC radicals” who, he believes, are determined to wipe out own-language education.
The president’s response to the Afrikaners last Friday was a master-stroke of his hallmark diplomacy. Addressing the delegates in Afrikaans, Mandela began by presenting them with copies of the Freedom Charter which, he pointed out, had been adopted at the “Volkskongres” — better known as the Congress of the People — and which still supplied the guiding principles for ANC policy: “When I talk of reconciliation and respect for all the languages and cultures in this country, this is not an individual standpoint.” Mandela is unlikely to intervene without the backing of the ANC.
On the face of it, Mandela and the ANC’s bottom line do not seem to be inconsistent with the demands made by the Afrikaners. Yet, within the ANC, suspicions run deep that the delegates have another agenda. “If they are asking for exclusive rights for Afrikaners, it would be very difficult for the ANC to support that,” said a member of the working group who felt that the delegation’s arguments did not bear scrutiny.
Proponents of monolingual schools point out that mother-tongue education is a right that is recognised in other multilingual societies such as Canada and Belgium, and this is what is now being sought for Afrikaners in South Africa. The delegates deny they are looking for special rights for Afrikaners, pointing out that all children have the right to classes in their own language.
But the demand on the table is for more than mother-tongue education. Louw says separate Afrikaans classes in a multilingual school “with a culture and ethos we are not used to” will not be enough, and the intention is to secure the future of schools which teach only in Afrikaans.
While monolingual schools may sound harmless in principle, there are fears in the ANC such an idea cannot escape being politically loaded, given South Africa’s history of racial segregation and privilege. In platteland towns, where the best schools were built exclusively for Afrikaners, Afrikaners are going to have to relinquish their hold if the government is to fulfil its aims of equalising access to education.
But, Van der Merwe says, “we don’t expect every half-full Afrikaans school to stay that way. We are also open to the idea of sharing facilities.” As long as some Afrikaans schools remain in places where there are enough Afrikaans pupils to make them viable, no one is insisting every dorp has one.
This concession could provide a way out of the deadlock. One source close to the president said while the current Constitution cannot be changed without falling foul of the anti- racist constitutional principles, a compromise outside the Constitution is not out of the question: “We must distinguish between constitutional provisions and implementation of the policy. An education department could declare schools in certain areas to be for Afrikaners — though they would not be allowed to turn other pupils away.”
But Van der Merwe doubts that existing provisions are enough to ensure the survival of Afrikaans schools: “We believe this is open to interpretation..” Without constitutional safeguards, Van der Merwe believes, Afrikaans schools will be under threat.
While Afrikaans-speakers within the ANC believe special protection for Afrikaans is neither desirable nor necessary, the organisation acknowledges that the delegates who visited Mandela last Friday represent most Afrikaners.
ANC spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa did not want to pre-empt the ongoing negotiations, and would only say “the ANC is committed to discussing all concerns in an attempt to find an amicable and lasting solution.”
For the delegates, a solution means nothing less than at least some Afrikaans schools stay ing that way. Says Ds Henno Cronje of the FAK, “if this doesn’t come right, it has serious consequences for reconciliation.”