The civil rights initiative AfriForum – that assisted Hoërskool Ermelo with funding for legal costs in the school’s struggle to remain an Afrikaans-medium school – welcomed the ruling of the Constitutional Court in favour of this school, as a victory for both mother-tongue education, as well as the rights of Afrikaans schools.

According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the Constitutional Court has confirmed that government had acted irregularly when forcing Hoërskool Ermelo to change its language policy. “The authorities were even prepared to exceed their powers in order to drive an ideologically-motivated vendetta against Afrikaans schools,” Kriel added.

AfriForum’s view that the education authorities are specifically targeting Afrikaans schools, according to Kriel is substantiated by the fact that nationally not a single example can be found of a minister or education authority stepping in to change the language policy of a single-medium English secondary school. “Contrary to this approach, the Minister and authorities deemed it necessary to deploy the full might of the State in order to try to ensure that Hoërskool Ermelo anglicises,” Kriel said.

Kriel reiterated that AfriForum has the greatest possible sympathy with the masses of children in the country who do not have access to good education. “The argument about access has however been abused as a handy excuse only in order to strip Hoërskool Ermelo of its status as Afrikaans school, as sufficient facilities exist in the school's vicinity to accommodate learners who prefer English as medium of education,” Kriel said. According to Kriel, the authorities have created an artificial demand for English education in order to promote an anti-Afrikaans agenda.

Kriel mentioned that numerous examples can be found which prove that the transition to a double-medium system is the first step towards a single-medium English institution, especially in view of the demographic realities of South Africa. The fact that a mere 19 of the 150 graduate courses of the University of Pretoria are still available in Afrikaans, according to Kriel is a striking example in this regard. “The demand for single-medium Afrikaans institutions therefore cannot be reduced to an effort to keep speakers of other languages out of schools at all,” Kriel stated.