Hon Chairperson, the ANC, which is the principal architect of a constitutional democracy, has seen fit to uphold and defend Afrikaans as one of the 11 constitutional languages. We must equally, however, protect and defend the advancement of other indigenous languages, for example, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Tshivenda, Sesotho, etc. This very same Constitution places transformation as the bedrock for making South Africa a country that belongs to all its people and hence providing equal access to opportunities for all.
It is in this context that the recent utterances by the DA, in the shallow education document they released, expose the DA's contempt for the Constitution and their hankering to protect exclusivity in the name of academic freedom. The DA in their statement said that linguistic exclusivity was justified, and thus demonstrated their shallow commitment to transformation.
The ANC's policy on education and training is well documented and has been developed through decades of struggle, drawing deep from the fountain of the Freedom Charter that the doors of learning and culture shall be open to all. This dynamic process, therefore, has continued under our democracy throughout the 15 years in government, and will continue for as long as any area of our society and any institution remain untransformed. Therefore, as the ANC we do not believe that there must be exclusivity when it comes to any particular language, especially at universities. [Applause.]