Against the background of new and shocking information recently uncovered about language implementation at Stellenbosch University, the student organisation StudentePlein is currently calling on SU to take immediate action to acknowledge the consequences of its English-only approach in classrooms and other spaces, and to launch an active process to rectify it.

Firstly, due to a request in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, SU handed over meeting minutes to StudentePlein on Wednesday indicating an undemocratic disposal of Afrikaans in classrooms. The minutes were provided only after StudentePlein’s legal team had to threaten to approach the High Court with an application to compel, due to SU’s initial failure to deliver the records.

From the record it appears, amongst other things, that the Executive Committee of the Senate had already decided in April of last year “as a matter of urgency … on behalf of the Senate” that new learning material in classes was “only to be offered in English”, contrary to the Language Policy. In March of 2021, the EC of the Senate decided once again that there may be a departure from the Language Policy and that new learning material may only be offered in English.

“The records that have since been handed over to StudentePlein unequivocally indicate that SU has done away with Afrikaans as the language of instruction on all fronts except black and white in its formal policies. That this is not SU’s official policy is irrelevant. The consequences of a series of decisions over the past few years – some of which have not even been subject to democratic voting – are now also very clear in a documentary film on the issue, Listen, released by StudentePlein last week,” says Tian Alberts, board member of StudentePlein.

Listen, with already more than 2,000 views on YouTube, testifies to Afrikaans students’ experiences in SU’s classrooms and residences where Afrikaans has seemingly disappeared or is now banned.

“SU’s indifference and defiant approach to well-founded criticism that multilingualism at SU is only a fiction, raises the question of what calamity has to occur before SU acknowledges the university’s language problem that requires urgent intervention. Students, lecturers, senate members, the Convocation as well as respected community organisations and alumni have all unanimously pleaded that SU should openly and actively intervene to ensure Afrikaans and multilingualism in general’s place on campus rather than do away with it.”

Furthermore, StudentePlein expresses its gratitude to members who, despite the prospect of victimisation, decided to testify before the Human Rights Commission in the latter’s investigation into a ban on Afrikaans in residences at SU.

“Some representatives from SU, including the resident head of Huis Francie van Zijl, maintain that the complaints before the commission are politically motivated. The reality is that complaints have been emanating from various student communities, are still forthcoming and will continue to emanate in the future as a natural consequence of doing away with Afrikaans. StudentePlein welcomes the involvement of community institutions, including political parties, in demanding answers and compelling SU to ensure that justice prevails.”

“The consequences of Stellenbosch University’s English-only approach in classrooms and residences can simply no longer be ignored by this university, and urgent accountability must be provided. Students and the public are seemingly no longer satisfied with the concealment of the facts and formalistic quotations of the stipulations of SU’s Language Policy.”

StudentePlein represents members in eight faculties and various residences at Stellenbosch University, and provides Afrikaans learning materials and other support to these students in order to enable them to study in Afrikaans.

“StudentePlein’s core value proposition is to aid its members with learning materials and other academic support. However, we will not hesitate to approach the court to review any further irregular decisions regarding deviations from the Language Policy. It is unfair that Afrikaans students have to bear the brunt of a dubious process to convert SU into a type of world university.”