South Africa is approaching the fiftieth anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising. The rallying cry of black youth in 1976 was: “We do not want to be taught in Afrikaans.” Fifty years later, a new cry has emerged: “You may not be taught in Afrikaans.” The 1976 slogan was a cry for freedom. The slogan of 2026 is its opposite: an attempt to deny Afrikaans speakers the freedom to receive education in their mother tongue.
For Afrikaners, this is nothing new. More than two centuries ago, on 19 July 1822, Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape, issued a directive declaring English the sole language of instruction in the Colony’s schools. The purpose was clear: to consolidate British dominance.
Concentration camps
A century later, during the Anglo-Boer War, the British established English-medium schools inside concentration camps as part of an effort to anglicise Afrikaner children. The British Director of Education, E.B. Sargant, made the objective explicit: “English must be the only language throughout South Africa.” Following the British victory, the new Governor, Lord Alfred Milner, triumphantly declared: “I have saved the British position in South Africa and have knocked the bottom out of the great Afrikaner nation for ever and ever, Amen.”
Almost a century later, the constitutional settlement of 1994 guaranteed mother-tongue education, including at university level. Afrikaans speakers believed that the lessons of 1822, 1902 and 1976 had finally been learned. They believed that everyone’s freedom to use and develop their language and culture through institutions such as schools and universities was secure. Afrikaans, at last, had been decolonised.
English
Yet the position of non-English languages has deteriorated sharply since 1994. All historically Afrikaans universities and hundreds of Afrikaans schools have, over time, been compelled to anglicise.
The BELA amendments of 2024 grant state officials the final authority over schools’ language and admission policies. This caused significant concern among Afrikaans-speaking communities because ANC politicians, acting as modern-day Lord Somersets, made it clear that they intended to use the legislation to force Afrikaans schools to change their language policies.
Broken agreements
The tensions created by these legislative amendments and political statements led to negotiations between the government and Afrikaans interest groups, resulting in two separate settlements. Those settlements were effectively abandoned almost immediately after the President proceeded with the implementation of the BELA Amendment Act. Shortly thereafter, the ANC government also reneged on an agreement concerning affirmative action that had been reached with Solidarity and facilitated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), by introducing new racial quotas. During the same period, the President signed legislation enabling expropriation without compensation. To add insult to injury, South Africa’s highest courts ruled that the slogan “Kill the Boer” does not constitute hate speech and is therefore permissible.
These repeated breaches of formal agreements have created a profound breakdown of trust. The Solidarity Movement, which includes AfriForum, views this as a breach of the 1994 settlement itself.
The Afrikaner Declaration
In an effort to repair this growing trust deficit, Afrikaner organisations representing approximately two million people issued an Afrikaner Declaration, extending a hand of cooperation to our fellow South Africans. The declaration made three things clear: that Afrikaners see South Africa as their future; that we wish to work alongside others; and that we seek to create the conditions necessary to protect our language and culture so that Afrikaners are not alienated from their homeland, but are able to build, remain, and contribute to making South Africa a better country for all. The government did not respond.
The ANC versus South Africa
Following President Trump’s election in the United States, Solidarity used its access in Washington to argue that ordinary South Africans should not suffer the consequences of tensions between governments. We love this country, even if we do not support the ANC. We have stated unequivocally that we do not regard the situation in South Africa as a genocide, nor do we view ourselves as refugees. We do, however, believe that the ANC has breached the 1994 settlement, and that the United States has a role to play in supporting reconciliation in South Africa, just as it did before 1994.
Rights, not grievances
Du Preez’s claim that Afrikaners, or the work of the Solidarity Movement, are driven by grievance politics is simply unfounded. We are defending our language and culture and asserting our constitutional rights and freedoms. This is not nationalism; it is cultural self-preservation. The more than 600 000 members of our Movement support our work because we offer practical solutions to challenges, including mother-tongue education, training, safety, and many other pressing concerns.
The Solidarity Movement is a proud South African, Afrikaner and African organisation. We are building the cultural ecosystem necessary to ensure that Afrikaners can continue to live, build and thrive in South Africa with confidence. In doing so, we seek to make a lasting contribution to the wellbeing of this country and all its people.
By Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement.
