University's English policy ruled lawful by SCA
The University of the Free State (UFS) acted lawfully when it adopted a new language policy in March last year‚ the SCA held yesterday when it upheld an the university's appeal against a ruling of a full Bench of the Free State High Court in July last year. The lower court reviewed and set aside the decision by the university to adopt the new policy as unlawful. The policy replaced Afrikaans and English as parallel mediums of instruction with English as the primary medium.
A TimesLIVE report notes the university had approved the dual language policy in 2003‚ but its rector at the time acknowledged the ‘unintended consequence’ of the parallel-medium policy segregating the lecturing rooms along racial lines. The university management accordingly sought and obtained a mandate from its council to formulate a new language policy in June 2015. The task was undertaken by the language committee.
‘There is no dispute that the committee executed its mandate diligently‚’ Judge Azhar Cachalia said in a unanimous judgment‚ in which Judges Kevin Swain‚ Rami Mathopo‚ Burton Fourie and Ashton Schippers concurred, notes the TimesLIVE report. He said the process spanned several months and involved thorough investigation‚ vigorous debate and full deliberation. Linguistic experts assisted the process. ‘UFS was entitled to adopt a new policy because it was no longer reasonably practicable to continue with the 2003 policy‚ which had the effect of segregating the student community along racial lines‚’ Cachalia said. The court ordered AfriForum and the university to pay their own costs, but Solidarity was ordered to pay the costs of the appeal. Cachalia said the university did not dispute AfriForum’s standing‚ but the judge had some doubts whether it had a legal interest in these proceedings. He said Solidarity was a trade union and its members did not have a right to receive education in the language of their choice because only students had that right. ‘Solidarity has no standing and has no basis to avoid a costs order‚’ Cachalia said.
University of the Free State v AfriForum
The judgment will almost certainly be tested in the Constitutional Court, according to a statement on the Politicsweb site by Solidarity. ‘It is a tragedy that educational institutions and courts provide so little protection to the internationally recognised right to mother tongue education,’ the union says. It notes AfriForum and Solidarity are in discussions with a view to approaching the Constitutional Court. The statement adds: ‘Even in the judgment it is clear that different views exist on the meaning of section 29 of the Constitution. This section deals, among other things, with the right to education in a student’s language of choice, subject to feasibility. It is important that the ruling judges admit that the phasing out of a language such as Afrikaans from the language policy of a tertiary institution is detrimental and should be a source of concern for all language groups in the country.’
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
