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‘Afrikaans will take its rightful place’ – McKenzie reassures organisation

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Sports. Arts & Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie says the Afrikaans language will receive fair treatment under his watch.

McKenzie said he had met with an organisation that has dedicated itself to preserving the Afrikaans language and culture in South Africa and reassured its representatives that the Afrikaans language will be treated like all official South African languages.

‘Afrikaans will take its rightful place’

“I assured them that Afrikaans will take its rightful place among all other languages, Afrikaans will not be treated the way it is currently being treated,” he said.

McKenzie said he would make sure that Afrikaans is preserved like all South African official languages.

“I gave them the assurance that Afrikaans will not be treated better than any other South African language, but it will also not be treated worse than any other language,” he said.

According to McKenzie, Afrikaans was the language of the second-largest population in the country.

He said language bursaries would be made available to at least 400 students to boost preservation efforts.

EFF and Die Stem

During the same budget vote meeting, the Economic Freedom Fighters I (EFF) expressed displeasure with the inclusion of Die Stem in the national anthem.

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The party appealed to the minister to consider starting engagements to replace parts of Die Stem with Afrikaans lyrics which were not from the old apartheid anthem.

Repatriation of freedom fighters

Meanwhile, McKenzie also said he would strengthen efforts to retrieve the remains of South African freedom fighters who died overseas and in other African countries.

“This department will be resuming its role of repatriating numerous struggle soldiers in other African countries,” he said.

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He said his family was also affected by the death of a relative who was a freedom fighter in Angola.

“My mother saw her brother the last time he went to Angola. My mother died a broken woman because we do not know what happened to our beloved uncle Joe,” he said.