Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, has denied accusations that Afrikaans public schools are exclusive. In a recent interview, Kriel called the claim a “false assumption” and challenged anyone to prove otherwise, even putting money on the table.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Thursday, Kriel said: “I’ll pay any person R10 000 if they can show me a single Afrikaans public school that is exclusive. My children went to a public Afrikaans school and there are numerous people from various communities”.
“The majority of Afrikaans-speaking people are Coloured people, so this is something that is simply used as an argument. We should rather say, if we want access to education, then we should move to multilingualism,” he continued.
His comments come amid growing tensions around the implementation of the BELA Act. AfriForum and Solidarity have been vocal in their opposition to the law, accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa of promulgating it without clear guidelines for its implementation.
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The groups claim there was an initial agreement with the government that certain sections of the bill would not be promulgated until the necessary norms and standards were developed. They take issue with the Act’s stance towards schools’ language policy.
Kriel criticised the government for moving ahead with the law without standards being put into place.
He warned: “It now creates a dangerous situation that those people, for instance the Gauteng government that are attacking Afrikaans schools, can now abuse this process because there are not clear guidelines for them”.
AfriForum and Solidarity gave Ramaphosa 10 days to address their concerns or face legal action. Kriel emphasised the uncertainty Afrikaans public schools now face.
“The setting up and developing of norms and standards will take about a year or a year-and-a-half. For this time in-between, Afrikaans schools are at the mercy of officials,” he said.
Picture: Solidariteit
