UFS to appeal court ruling on language policy

Bloemfontein - The University of the Free State will appeal a court ruling that the institution may not take away the right of Afrikaans speakers to be educated in their mother tongue.

The UFS referred the ruling to its lawyers, who advised it that it was erroneous in relation to legal principles and factual matters, which were both fundamental and far-reaching, spokesperson Lacea Loader said on Friday.

READ: Dropping of Afrikaans at UFS violates Constitution - AfriForum

The university would lodge an application to appeal the judgment with the Supreme Court of Appeal.

On Thursday, the Free State High Court ruled in favour of civil rights group AfriForum’s bid to stop a proposed change to the university's language policy.

"The fact that English has been introduced at the UFS, which was a historically Afrikaans university, as a language of instruction, does not mean that Afrikaans must inevitably be replaced by English as dominant language of instruction," said Judge Fouche Jordaan.

In March, the UFS decided to make English the primary medium of instruction from 2017, while still providing sufficient scope for multilingualism across the university.