UCT mourns death of Neville Alexander
The University of Cape Town is deeply saddened by the death of retired Dr Neville Alexander, acclaimed linguist, academic and anti-apartheid struggle veteran, following a battle with cancer.
"Neville Alexander was an opinion maker all his life," said Gerda Kruger, Executive Director of Communications & Marketing at UCT. "As such he contributed richly not only to dialogues at UCT, but also to South Africa in its formative years as a new democracy. Professor Alexander has a rich and lengthy association with UCT as student, lecturer, professor and friend. The university mourns the loss of this remarkable life, which stands as a role model for all. We extend our sincere condolences to his family."
Professor Alexander, best known for his role in the struggle for a democratic and non-racial South Africa as well as his scholarly achievements, established the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) in 1992 at UCT.
He worked as the Western Cape Director of the South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED) for six years from 1980, which led to the establishment of a leading alternative higher education initiative called Khanya College. He subsequently established the National Language Project (NLP) and then PRAESA. SACHED provided Professor Alexander with the opportunity for exploring the concept of alternative education. (He was a part-time lecturer in Sociology and Educational Method and Adult Education at UCT between 1979 and 1990.)
When the student uprisings were at their height in the 1970s and the 1980s, they turned to initiatives such as SACHED for guidance in developing new approaches to education. Through the NLP and PRAESA, Professor Alexander led the national debate around language policy and planning in South Africa. He came to play a leading role in language policy development with various government departments, including his service as the chair of the new government's Language Plan Task Group. His most recent work focused on the tension between multilingualism and the hegemony of English in the public sphere.