Opinion
LitNet contributors voice their opinions about current affairs.
Open Stellenbosch: Beyond the rainbow, towards a change of climate
2015-09-18"Constitutions are about the 'promised land'; ours is certainly not a magic wand that has wiped out our history and made us all equal. To achieve this 'promised land' we need to be pragmatic, generous and human in our approaches to move from where we are, from what we have inherited, to what we would collectively like to be."
Open Stellenbosch: Statement by Adam Tas Students’ Society | Verklaring deur die Adam Tas Studentevereniging
2015-09-16"… we believe that tuition in a language of choice is central to a dignified and well-deserved tertiary education. Students should not be compelled to be taught in a language they do not fully understand or do not know at all. However, by simply introducing English as the only language of instruction, the academic development of Afrikaans and isiXhosa is jeopardized. It is regressive and shameful to transformative constitutionalism if a previously neglected language such as isiXhosa loses its developmental status at SU, along with Afrikaans …"
Open Stellenbosch: Fresh and innovative ideas are sorely needed
2015-09-16"Finally, there is only one viable and long-term solution, namely the creation of a fully fledged English academy and a fully fledged Afrikaans academy on the same campus, with the ideal of having, one day, also a fully fledged Xhosa or Zulu academy."
Open Stellenbosch: Academic imperialism at Stellenbosch and in higher education
2015-09-15"[L]anguage is more than just a means of communication; it influences our culture and even our thought processes."
Open Stellenbosch: The elephant in the room
2015-09-15"Come, let us create space for Afrikaans as well as the other indigenous languages – English is a world language, it is the greatest common factor among us and will remain standing without special assistance."
Multiculturalism does not mean everybody speaks English
2015-09-09"Imagine if centres and schools were started at the university to actively boost research, tuition and translation services in Xhosa so that students from Khayelitsha and the Transkei were no longer stuck with the choice of studying in either their second or their third language. Imagine if lecturers engaged one another in their respective first languages and broadened one another’s horizons?"
Open Stellenbosch and the importance of mother tongue education
2015-09-09"How do you get someone out of the township? The answer to this question of transformation is simple: educate them in their own language!"
Stellenbosch and the cypher
2015-09-08"Afrikaans has never been the enemy; the use of the language to exclude people from conversation is the problem. Not the language!"
It is time to listen to the youth
2015-09-08"The youth are actively participating. Expect them to indicate the pace at which we move forward."
Open Stellenbosch and the language debate
2015-09-07"Afrikaans should be seen and accepted by non-Afrikaans students as a language spoken by the majority of people in the Western Cape. There are more Afrikaans-medium schools in the Western Cape than in the rest of the country combined. Surely this is a fact that cannot simply be ignored. Those students, the majority of whom are coloured/black Afrikaans mother-tongue speakers, have a right to be taught in the language of their choice – Afrikaans. The abandonment of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at universities will have an effect on the entire Afrikaans community in South Africa."
Open Stellenbosch: “Yeah but you said it” – revisited
2015-09-07"Once again, I find myself perplexed by your intentions, OS. You need to jump off this taaldebat train, because it’s clear your demands for transformation go so much further than language – and rightly so."
Afrikaans-in-dialogue, rather than Protection-of-Afrikaans
2015-09-07" ...the only way forward for Afrikaans is for its proponents to stop privileging it above other indigenous South African languages and actively and practically support the development of all South African languages."
Have Springbok fans moved on at all?
2015-09-02"The apartheid legacy does still haunt the nation, and seems set to continue doing so for a while."
Artists unite against corruption
2015-08-12More than 650 individuals in the arts, culture and heritage sector endorsed the Unite Against Corruption campaign in less than a week.
Video: Thinking ahead: critical questions on language in higher education
2015-06-04Mbulungeni Madiba of UCT in conversation with Gerda Odendaal and Marius Swart, Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, Stellenbosch University. The discussion centred on a chapter in Neville Alexander's book Thoughts on the New South Africa, problematising the issue of language in the modern South African university.
Tessa Dowling on the Funza Lushaka bursaries
2015-05-26"So Chumani Maxwele is correct: we South Africans who are not first-language speakers of African languages need to lose our arrogance, our feelings of superiority and our fear of making fools of ourselves, and learn what it is like to flounder in a language that is not our own, but still make sense."
The Franschhoek Literary Festival 2015 and the elephant in the room
2015-05-22"And for all that the Franschhoek Literary Festival is irredeemably disengaged from the lived reality of much of South Africa ..."
Instagram or intervention? #xenomedia
2015-04-22What is the role of the media in the time of xenophobia?
André Brink: Impressions / Afterthoughts
2015-02-10After André Brink had received an honorary doctorate and delivered a speech at UCL he made one final public appearance. On Thursday, 5 February he was interviewed by Ludo Teeuwen at Bozar in Belgium. This interview (including photos) was the last time he appeared in front of an audience in his life.
Photos of André Brink's last public performance
2015-02-10After André Brink had received an honorary doctorate and delivered a speech at UCL he made one final public appearance. On Thursday, 5 February he was interviewed by Ludo Teeuwen at Bozar in Belgium. This interview was the last time he appeared in front of an audience in his life. Here are photos of this final interview.