Marion Edmunds
NEWLY elected Stellenbosch student leaders have held talks with Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu to discuss the university’s future, and whether Afrikaans should be its sole language of instruction.
The meeting comes in the wake of a row between African National Congress MP Jannie Momberg and members of the university council over the status of Afrikaans at the university. The university’s authorities have resisted debating transformation for fear of losing control of discussions which may threaten the Afrikaans character of the institution.
It is precisely this assumption which irks the newly elected Students’ Representative Council, led by Nadine Fourie (sister of ANC MP Melanie Verwoerd), and ANC MPs in Parliament who are attempting to persuade the university to cater for all South African students, particularly blacks, and not only those who speak Afrikaans as a first or second language.
The ANC has sent a “messenger” to the university in the person of Momberg: he was nominated recently by Bengu as a member of the council. In a speech at an ANC branch meeting in Stellenbosch, Momberg argued that the law which protects Afrikaans at the university should be amended, all post- graduate classes should be in English, and English instruction should be available in the more popular disciplines.
Momberg was fiercely criticised in the letters page of Die Burger and lambasted by the National Party and Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel. His views were publicly rejected by the university’s rector, Professor Andreas van Wyk.
“The university’s language policy is based on educational and demographic realities and constitutional norms. But it is not a political statement. If others wish to treat it as such, it will be a great pity,” said Van Wyk.
The row has been hushed up as best possible, but letters of outrage still appear in Die Burger and Afrikaner academics have closed ranks on the campus.
A senior lecturer and distinguished writer in the university’s Afrikaans department refused to talk to the M&G this week, saying: “Jannie Momberg is a man who fills me with so much disgust that I could not bear to have my name next to his in the same article.”
The ANC has risen to Momberg’s defence. His colleague, ANC MP Randall van den Heever, said this week: “The fact that he has had to take so much flak from Afrikaners related to the university community for his views is a sad indictment of the selfish level of colonial exclusivity which still exists in a section of our higher education community.
“I believe in essence that the University of Stellenbosch should maintain its Afrikaans character. However, it will never be able to challenge the position of English as the national academic lingua franca of students in multilingual institutions of higher learning.”
The SRC’s Fourie said the issue of transformation sought to go beyond the question of the medium of instruction: “Transformation has come to mean taking away Afrikaans and putting English in its place, and that is a pity. If you started looking at other issues, you’d find the pressure would be taken off Afrikaans and the debate could become less heated.”
She acknowledged the fact that the Western Cape was predominantly Afrikaans-speaking was a valid argument for retaining the university as a predominantly Afrikaans- medium institution, but said there needed to be greater discussion to legitimise that defence.