BATTLE OF THE TONGUES

"MIND YOUR LANGUAGE" says Nzimande

In order to adhere to government regulations, the University of Stellenbosch has introduced more courses taught in both English and Afrikaans, as opposed to the single medium of instruction being Afrikaans. Blade Nzimande has been quoted as saying this is a form of "covert racism"http:///www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-05-a-deadly-war-of-languages. Is it really though? Is it so terrible that the University of Stellenbosch is using its constituitional right, by choosing one of the official eleven languages. The Afrikaaner race is a minority and could be said is dying out, so now that they are preserving their culture and language, its racist? Iam a young, black woman, so obviously Iam not being subjective in any way. I just feel that pulling the race card everytime white people want to do something to promote their culture its wrong? Iam aware that it tends to discriminate against non-Afrikaans speaking students that want to study at Stellenbosch, so is then that we don't have Xhosa Universities, Zulu and Tswana Universities? Why is it that English has to be the be-all and end-all of education? Our native languages are dying out, when people try to preserve them its perceived as racist? Am I missing something here, or is it because its white people? I'll have you know Mr. Nzimande Afrikaans is a native South African language and Afrikaaers are South African too.

Maybe Nzimande should mind his racial slurs!