ANC stalwart’s attack on Afrikaans university the foundation of a totalitarian state

Wynand Boshoff, a Freedom Front Plus Member of Parliament, said that ANC stalwart Naledi Pandor’s attack on Akademia’s Afrikaans university is misguided.

Pandor is a prominent ANC politician who served as South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation from 2019 to 2024.

She has held high-ranking cabinet portfolios over a 30-year parliamentary career, including Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Training.

Pandor recently shared her views on the new Akademia University in Pretoria during an interview with the African Renaissance Podcast.

In the interview, she said that the fact that a university intended to be Afrikaans-medium is being built and receiving billions of rands is concerning.

“The only person speaking out is Jonathan Jansen. The rest of us remain quiet. We are far too complacent with our freedom,” she said.

“It is a massive challenge because we are battling centuries of racism and colonialism, and those who have held control do not let go easily.”

“Instead, they find alternative ways. They recruit entrepreneurs to act as their tools and work against you.”

She explained that, in many cases, while they believe those individuals are working toward their goals, they are actually working against them.

“We are not just in a democratic South Africa. We are in a process of building a fundamentally different, endurable, progressive democracy,” she said.

“If we understand that, then AfriForum won’t have currency. But because we have no answer, we’re too casual.”

“We just take things for granted. I am afraid sometimes of the lackadaisical response that we have to conservative liberalism.”

Wynand Boshoff responds to Pandor’s comments

Boshoff said that Pandor’s comments about the independent Afrikaans university, Akademia, were misguided.

“Pandor condemned Akademia as an attempt by former oppressors to maintain their position,” Boshoff said.

“According to the discussion, Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and the fact that Akademia can raise R3 billion for the construction of a new campus are proof of this.”

“Neither the capital expenditure of R3 billion from private sources nor the use of Afrikaans as a language of instruction can be labelled as a form of oppression.”

“It is an effort to be freed from the disregard and even oppression of a monolingual state culture in higher education.”

Boshoff said that the absurdity of the allegations about Akademia and Afrikaans could lead people to ignore them.

“However, it points to a larger, dangerous trend taking hold in South Africa that efforts in the civic sphere are becoming increasingly controversial,” he said.

“For Pandor, it is not enough that all state spending on education serves the dominant ideology. Civic spending must do so as well.”

Boshoff said that this view is the foundation of a totalitarian state and must be strongly opposed.