SECTION 185 COMMISSION TURNS INTO AN EXTENSION OF THE ANC

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has accused the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) of functioning purely as an extension of the ANC.

According to AfriForum, the Commission is consciously undermining minority communities' rights, while it should be promoting community rights in terms of its mandate as set out in section 185 of the South Africa's Constitution. AfriForum's criticism of the CRL Rights Commission comes after the Commission launched an attack on AfriForum's new campaign for the protection of Afrikaans-medium schools in a press release.

AfriForum launched its "Save Afrikaans schools" campaign after all three Afrikaans-medium schools in Fochville had been forced by the Gauteng Department of Basic Education to relinquish their status as Afrikaans-medium schools at the start of the 2012 school year. All the learners who chose English as medium of instruction could have been accommodated in one of these schools that still had room for pupils.

According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the right of existence of single-medium schools is recognised in section 29 of the Constitution. "It is therefore unthinkable that an institution like the CRL Rights Commission - that was established in terms of the same Constitution - is now supporting the government's ideologically driven efforts to do away with Afrikaans-medium schools," said Kriel.

Kriel pointed out that the parties to the constitutional negotiations agreed to include provisions for the establishment of a CRL Rights Commission in the Constitution owing to the call for regulations for the protection of minority groups. "It is becoming increasingly evident that the ANC and the cadres it deployed in the CRL Rights Commission regard the Constitution's provisions relating to minorities merely as temporary concessions that had to be made in order to gain political power. Now that the ANC has gained control of almost all power structures and constitutional institutions, these provisions are being undermined," he added.

Kriel said because the ANC government is using the CRL Rights Commission, which is supposed to safeguard community rights, against minority groups like Afrikaners, AfriForum has to increasingly turn to the United Nations and other international platforms to protect minority rights in South Africa. "Cultural communities' right to culturally oriented mother-tongue schools is recognised internationally and AfriForum has already appointed an international politics expert to explore international instruments that can be used for the protection of Afrikaans schools," said Kriel.

According to Kriel, AfriForum has already set aside R50 000 to fight the government's actions to undermine Afrikaans schools in Fochville. AfriForum encourages the public and, in particular, parents to support the "Save Afrikaans schools" campaign and to donate R10 to the legal action by texting the word 'skool' to 38655. The campaign was stepped up today with a full-page advertisement on page 9 of Beeld.

Statement issued by Kallie Kriel, CEO: AfriForum, January 19 2012

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