The advancement of African languages following South Africa’s transition to a constitutional
democracy was important not only for societal transformation but also to enable previously
disadvantaged South Africans proper access to education. In order to achieve this end policies
had to be developed by government and by the institutions involved. In this dissertation I
provide an analysis of the language policies developed by four South African universities1
(the
University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University and NorthWest
University) in order to provide insight into, and a critique of, how the role of African
languages in education and in societal transformation is interpreted and implemented. The
analysis of the language policies is preceded by an overview of the link between conflict and
language in South Africa and a discussion on the manner in which the post-conflict South
African state has attempted use language as a key player in transformation, particularly with
regard to education.
The dissertation draws on data collected from the policies to qualitatively determine a
number of issues relating to transformation, being: the rationale for becoming a multilingual
university; their choice for their languages of instruction; how universities try to achieve
academic development through language interventions; how they attempt to develop their
staff and students; and how actual implementation is achieved or projected.
The analysis makes use of Bacchi’s (2009) ‘what the problem is represented to be’ (WPR)
approach to understanding exactly what the policies are attempting to address and what the
silences in the policies are.
The study concludes that the policies are merely symbolic documents which avoid answering
difficult questions about the role played by African languages in higher education and which
are largely silent around the issue of their intellectualisation and how they would function in
transforming society