Language rites: a symposium on language practices in South African higher education institutions

Abstract

South Africa should transform through encouraging bilingualism in all levels and spheres of society. We have had several policies and yet language and the way it is exercised is institutions remains a problem. endorsement of a monolingual English domination In 2016, the University of Pretoria made English its primary medium of instruction and Stellenbosch introduced a multilingual language policy, giving equal status to English and Afrikaans as mediums of instruction. The president of the convocation of Stellenbosch University, six others and the organisation Gelyke Kanse, took the university to court to demand that the new policy be reviewed and for Afrikaans to be used as a primary language of instruction. They argued that the policy infringed the rights of Afrikaans-speaking students, but the Western Cape high court dismissed the application in October.