Chair, as I have indicated, it is both the financial side, but also the regulatory side. So, we need to unlock the regulatory side so that then we only deal with the financial side without any impediments of the regulatory side. So, as I said earlier on, from the national health council - the political leadership - we thought the mater had been resolved two years ago and we had been communicating with the Health Professions Council, but clearly we are not at one.
So, we are going back to the drawing board to work with them to relook at the regulatory side in terms of the Act, the provisions of the Act and the regulations. Hopefully, as executive authority, even though the Health Professions Council of South Africa is an independent body, it does report to the Ministry of Health.
So, we hope that we should be able to find each other together with the council in this regard. Then, once that is done, we will only have to deal with the financial side in the manner in which I have answered the other hon member in terms of identifying where we can make savings so that we can be able to fund these critical posts. Thanks.
Question 50: The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY: House Chairperson, our Constitution underpins our department's policy on languages in Higher Education. In postapartheid South Africa, languages should not be used as a barrier to access any higher education institution in the country. Universities are continuously reviewing their policies, including their language policies, to ensure that this principle is upheld.
Recently, in some universities, which were Afrikaans language institutions under the apartheid law, have reviewed their language policies. These institutions have decided to include English as a primary language of teaching and learning, especially at undergraduate level. This has been solely driven by the imperative to ensure that institutions are inclusive, to better serve the diverse linguistic communities of South Africa and to not deny students access based on language.
Moreover, these decisions have been based on the use of available resources for the maximum benefit of all communities. These processes have been initiated and driven by university communities themselves, in line with legislation which empowers university councils to determine institutional language policies. In all cases, the councils' decisions were challenged in the courts of law and have been upheld up to Constitutional Court level. This is proof that these decisions were correct and are done without malicious intent or prejudice towards Afrikaans, as one of the official languages of our country.
The development of all South African languages and indigenous languages, in particular, is work that the department takes very seriously. It is a constitutional imperative to ensure that all languages are valued and developed. This does not exclude Afrikaans, as one of the 11 official languages protected by the Constitution of the Republic.
However, it should be acknowledged that, in relation to the other official languages, the development of Afrikaans is at an advance stage. Hence, the emphasis of the promotion of individual languages tends to be on the historically marginalised languages.
The aim is not to exclude Afrikaans but rather to highlight the unfortunate historical fact of deliberate state-sponsored underdevelopment of indigenous African languages in the past. The promotion and development of languages in postapartheid South Africa is, and should be an inclusive process where all of our languages are granted parity of esteem, as the Constitution of the Republic stipulates. Thank you.