ANC 'is anti Afrikaans schools'

2005-02-09 21:29

Cape Town - The Mikro affair was part of a nationwide harassment campaign against Afrikaans schools, said Democratic Alliance education spokesperson Helen Zille on Wednesday.

She was reacting to Western Cape education MEC Cameron Dugmore taking part in a spirited African National Congress demonstration in front of the Cape High Court on Tuesday.

The governing body of Mikro Primary School in Kuils River is asking the court to overturn a ruling by Dugmore's department that it provide an English-medium class for Grade One pupils who live in the area.

Mikro has been Afrikaans-medium since its inception in 1972.

Zille said: "By toyi-toying in front of an ANC flag with a group of ANC protesters on the steps of the high court... Dugmore has revealed what his case against Mikro Primary School is all about."

'Using strong ANC connections'

"He has shown that it is a party political assault by the ANC against Afrikaans-medium institutions, which are required to sacrifice their language rights in the interests of the ANC's definition of transformation."

She said that, instead of dealing with the real and pressing problems in the province's schools, Dugmore had chosen to "nurture the interests of a small group of relatively well-off individuals with strong ANC connections".

She said: "He is throwing his weight in with an ongoing nation-wide harassment campaign against Afrikaans-medium schools."

Earlier on Wednesday, advocate Norman Arendse, for the department argued in court that the governing body had adopted an "ostrich-like" approach to the changing needs of the new South Africa.

Advocate Arendse said to Judge Wilfred Thring: "This is really why this school doesn't want to admit any English learners."

He said the school's admission policy was objectionable, unlawful and unconstitutional because it was ultra vires.

He read out a section of the school's prospectus.

It said: "Through our mother tongue we want to foster not only knowledge, but also love, respect and pride for everything that is Volkseie."

'Language of old South Africa'

"Volkseie" can be translated as "peculiar to a particular people"; the word "volk" had traditionally been used by Afrikaner nationalists to describe themselves as a group.

Arendse said: "That to me sounds very much like the language of the old South Africa."

He said there was nothing wrong with being proud of one's origins providing other people were not obliged to do so too.

But, under the school's admission policy, pupils were required to identify with and honour the culture, tradition, conventions and ethical values of the school.

He said Mikro was named after an Afrikaner poet who, he said, was also know as a "bittereinder" - one who fought to the bitter end in the Anglo-Boer War.

"And that is the culture and tradition that is being referred to."

- SAPA