South Africa’s Evolving Language Policy: Educational Implications

South Africa is facing the challenge of creating a viable nation from a situation of interplay between diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic forces. This article discusses the implications for education of the evolving picture of language policy as South Africa addresses the task of nation-building. Language policy is important because of its key role in developing and maintaining identity, particularly that of emerging generations. The results of a bad language policy can be violence and civil war. Language policy, particularly in education, can be instrumental therefore in building a harmonious nation.

indigenous languages while the latter tended to assert racial superiority resulting in a segregation of the races in educational and other venues (Mazrui, 1988: 89). However, while tolerating African languages, the British were slow to expand the teaching of English because of a fear of possible politicisation and mobilisation through the common medium of communication. This found expression in the desire to '...maintain the linguistic distance between the Englishman and his coloured subject, as a way of maintaining the social distance between them ...' (Mazrui, 1988: 98).
Upon the gaining political dominance in 1948, the South African Afrikaners deployed language education policy as an important part of the total approach designed to slow down or stop the 'Westernisation' of the African population: "Language policy was part of this deceleration of the Westernising process. Afrikaners preferred "Bantu Education" as a device of keeping Africa "African" and white power supreme!" (Mazrui, 1988: 90).
The language education policy of the Afrikaner-dominated Nationalist Government, the so-called 'Bantu Education' policy, sought to steer Black South Africans towards the Afrikaans language. It did this through making as its central feature a policy called Mother Tongue Education, which meant that education for Africans was required to be in the vernacular up to and including tertiary level (Bunting, 1969: 273). This policy caused much distress and an official commission in 1963 received reports from an overwhelming majority of witnesses that '... the standard of English had declined considerably and was still deteriorating.' (Bunting, 1969: 273). The difficulty of this policy was that Afrikaans was seen as a symbol of White oppression, (even though it was in a slightly different form the mother tongue of a large population of mixed race inhabitants of the Cape Province), and a language of racial oppression while English was seen as a language of Pan-African communication (Mazrui, 1988: 90).
It was the issuance of the order for Black school pupils to be taught in Afrikaans and not English that triggered the explosive riots in 1976 in Soweto, a satellite town of Johannesburg, in which 600 people died. In addition, when the 'homelands' that had been created under the apartheid policy were granted a very limited degree of 'self-government', they one after another chose English and an African language as their official languages (Giliomee, 1997: 123).
As the future for Afrikaans started to seem less secure, it was decided that the mixed-race people, a predominantly Afrikaans-speaking group almost as numerous as the Afrikaners themselves, could be given a higher degree of recognition. In this way, after 36 years of exclusion, the ruling National Party widened its definition of an Afrikaner to include anyone who spoke Afrikaans (Schiff, 1996: 219).
Thus, South African language education policy under minority rule attempted to create within the nation a multiplicity of separate nations. Language education policy played a major though still somewhat unrecognised part in the process by which South Africa went from minority to majority rule.

South African Language Policy After Majority Rule
The Constitution of the new South Africa was adopted in 1996 and Section 6 of Chapter 1 Founding Provisions laid down the principles of policy as to language. It recognised 11 official languages and stated that practical and positive measures', (and one could add, especially educational), must be taken to elevate the status and advance the use of the indigenous languages, while 'all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and be treated equitably'. (South Africa, 1997: 1).
Although all official languages are constitutionally equal, there is great difference in demography, body of written literature, and educational and international use. The estimated numbers of speakers of each language as a home language and proportion of the population is The question that arises is one of why did the Afrikaner-dominated minority government accept majority rule without a struggle, given the likely effect on their language and identity? The answer must include the fact that the ANC-led majority government adopted a generous policy towards Afrikaans, allowing it a place in the new South Africa.
In the words of Giliomee "... there was every prospect that a black government would elevate English to the status of being the sole official language, spelling the end of Afrikaans and the Afrikaner culture-and with it the demise of the Afrikaner people." (Giliomee, 1997: 123).
When the newly-independent Namibia chose English as sole official language, though with recognition of educational rights in other languages (Namibia, 1990), it was rumoured by many Afrikaners to be an indication of a lack of future in South Africa.
The majority-rule African National Congress government chose to follow a path of official recognition for nine indigenous languages, plus English, while allowing Afrikaans continuity as an official language in the new South Africa, with a strong role for all these languages in education. Nelson Mandela's distinct contribution was to see the new South Africa as the 'rainbow nation', where there would be a place and a role for even his former persecutors and their language. On this last point, one commentator has noted that (ex) President Mandela has been '...highly sensitive to the language issue' (Schiff, 1996: 221) and goes on to cite as further evidence the opposition of Mandela to the elimination of the use of Afrikaans in the South African military (Schiff, 1996: 221). The creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also provided a mechanism for adjustment to fundamental change.
The future role of language policy in the political development of South Africa will be critical. There are fears that have been aroused by the ANC-led government refusal to grant approval to either exclusive mother-tongue education or single language schools and universities (Giliomee, 1997: 137).
In the case of the African languages, it is necessary to de-stigmatise them from the hangover of their previously assigned position of inferiority and to give them an enhanced status, while noting that equality is not in itself enough to achieve the desired outcome (Kamwangamalu, 1997: 122). A cause of major concern in the post-apartheid phase is the effect of the 'all-mighty English language' on the survival of all other languages (Kamwangamalu, 1998: 122), and the implications of these issues is currently being assessed by the Pan-South Africa Language Board created in 1995.
The salient arena of language policy is education. In 1997, a 'Language in Education Policy' was unveiled after a process of extensive consultation and enquiry. The policy recommended the promotion of equal treatment and use of the 11 official languages including redress for those that had suffered discrimination and a commitment to the non-diminution of the rights of language communities that historically had been favoured. But the implementation of this policy was confronted with many difficulties, as Mda has pointed out: specifically, a movement towards English, yet, in the view of one observer, 'the policy may succeed in promoting the use of African languages in South African schools.' (Mda, 1997: 374). Against this, it has been noted that 80% of instruction in South African schools is given in English (Kamwangamalu, 2007: 272).
Although Afrikaans must come to terms with the negative connotation of its earlier association with apartheid, there are signs that this is happening. In 1996, Matthews Phosa, the Premier of Mpumalanga, one of the new provinces of South Africa, published an anthology of poetry in Afrikaans (Van Rensburg, 1999: 88).
These considerations reflect the major concern caused by the hegemonic power of the English language within the highly fluid linguistic situation in South Africa. Moreover, English is impacting on the discursive formations of the African languages (McLean, 1999, 10).
In light of the above discussion, one could say that the maintenance and development of the new South African State depends upon the emergence of a new consciousness in which language education policy can make a contribution by avoidance of what has been called 'linguistic exclusion' (Ridge, 1996: 33).
Thus, the survival of languages is important to the survival of communities and to the State, which is dependent upon a sense of nationhood, as state and nation have a close symbiotic relationship, not unlike body and soul (Bostock and Smith, 2001).
As has been stated in specific regard to languages "Charity begins at home. Unless a community makes a deliberate effort to maintain and promote its own language, the chances are that the language will face attrition and death." (Kamwangamalu, 1998: 122).
Further to these views, du Plessis, among others, has observed that in South Africa, the policy of official multilingualism is problematic, and the state is in fact proceeding with a non-official policy of monolingualism in English (du Plessis, 2006: 37). This is particularly noticeable in the sphere of education at all levels, from pre-school to university.

Conclusion
When in 1994, South Africa's majority came to power, a language policy was embodied in the Constitution and South Africa went from being a country of two official languages, Afrikaans and English, to a country of 11 official languages. Afrikaans had been heavily promoted by the State, particularly in education, but English had the power of being the predominant global language. Since independence, the nine official languages that are indigenous have continued in common use. However, despite some gains, an increasing proportion of young Black South Africans are now using English, a change of direction that is being reinforced in the educational sphere. Afrikaans has undergone a loss in status and use but will continue to exist as a medium of education and a vehicle of identity formation but on a reduced scale. It is becoming clear that South Africa has adopted an acceptance of market forces in language education policy and this will play a still-evolving role in the task of nation-building.