Admission exams for lawyers can still be sat in Afrikaans

2 November 2020

After a protracted battle and sustained pressure, the Legal Practitioners Council (LPC) finally confirmed to Solidarity’s Law Guild that entrance exams would be made available in both Afrikaans and English.

Solidarity and the Vereniging van Regsluivir Afrikaans (VRA) (an association of lawyers promoting the use of Afrikaans as an official language in the practicing of law) challenged the LPC in the High Court on 4 March 2019 after it had published a notice on 4 March 2019 in terms of which Afrikaans was to be abolished as an official examination language. 

According to Henru Kruger, sector head at Solidarity’s Law Guild, the court application showed at length that there was no legal basis for the abolition of Afrikaans. “In the end, the LPC capitulated and on 13 January 2020 it again issued a notice in terms of which the notice of 4 March 2019 was withdrawn,” he said.

Since the withdrawal of the notice allowing only English as language of examination, the LPC has created major confusion and uncertainty by not communicating that the status of Afrikaans as a language of examination had been restored.

The Law Guild again put the LPC on terms to affirm Afrikaans as a language of examination, and the necessary clarity has now finally been accomplished. 

“However, the battle is not over yet. In August this year the LPC announced a draft language policy that affirms the dominant position of English in the courts, suppresses Afrikaans, robbing it of any space, and besides, it undermines any chances other languages have of advancing into becoming legal languages.”  

“The Law Guild submitted its comments on the draft policy, signalling its opposition to it, and also filed a formal complaint with the Pan South African Language Board ,” Kruger concluded.

Issued by Henru Krüger, Solidarity Law Guild, 2 November 2020