Abstract
8 May 2025 marks the centenary of the recognition of Afrikaans as an official language. Notwithstanding all the celebrations commemorating this event, the present position of Afrikaans can be regarded as precarious. This tendency is incidental to the political development of our subcontinent and the historical handicap experienced by the majority of the population in South Africa before 1994.
In this historical review an account is provided of the legal language in sway during subsequent periods since the establishment of the first European settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, up to the present. This survey first touches upon the position regarding the official language and, more specifically, the judicial means of communication in each era, and then covers the status of Afrikaans as a language of tuition. Regarding the first theme, the following periods are subjected to scrutiny: (i) the mainly Dutch East India era: 1652-1806; (ii) the position in the Cape since 1806 and Natal since 1843; (iii) the position in the Boer republics; (iv) the period after the Second Anglo-Boer War: 1902-1910; and (v) the period after Unification: 1910 to the present. Thereafter the emergence of Afrikaans as a language of tuition is evaluated.
In the second part of the article dealing with the continued viability of Afrikaans as an official language and language of record, as well as a medium of tuition, the main reasons for the decline of Afrikaans are addressed and evaluated. The establishment of 11 official languages in our constitution and the decree in terms of which Mogoeng CJ declared English as the only official language of record in 2017 are identified as the main reasons for the decline of Afrikaans as a means of communication in legal practice. The abolition of Afrikaans as language of tuition at all previously Afrikaans tertiary institutions – with concomitant effects such as the reluctance of publishers to continue producing Afrikaans textbooks and academics’ preference for publishing in English in order to gain a good rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) – is identified as a crucial debilitating factor for Afrikaans as a medium of tuition.
It is suggested that Afrikaans may still survive as a medium of communication in the legal sphere if the method of the Canadian supreme court of writing judgments in two columns (English and French) is followed. This method has recently found favour in judgments of our supreme court of appeal (English and Xhosa) and constitutional court (English and Afrikaans). This strategy is particularly commendable, because it represents a “practical and positive” measure as determined by section 6(2) of the constitution, which recognises the historically diminished use and status of our indigenous languages and mandates the state to take practical and positive measures to elevate their status and advance their use. Although the future of Afrikaans is ultimately dependent on the loyalty of its speakers towards the language in which they were brought up, its continued existence is bolstered by the fact that there are still numerous Afrikaans legal firms conducting their day-to-day business in Afrikaans, while the possibility of financial inputs by Afrikaans capital may present additional support for enhancing the relevance of Afrikaans as a language of record.
