Are South African lawmakers working against the government of national unity?
South Africa is witnessing a parliamentary chaos over language policies. The deputy parliament speaker from the white-led, liberal Democratic Alliance angered some opposition lawmakers when she disallowed them from speaking other languages apart from English and Afrikaans. Is their anger justified or just an expression of frustrations against the coalition government?
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00:00Parliamentary work in South Africa has been chaotic in recent days.
00:06MPs have deliberately spoken different languages, making debates impossible for all to follow.
00:13Honourable Ministers, I will not take any further quacks of order.
00:19Remember, I have not recognised you.
00:22It's not a point of order.
00:24Then I do not recognise you.
00:26This all began when the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Anne-Lie Lothriet from the Democratic Alliance,
00:32angered some opposition lawmakers by preventing them from using their indigenous languages,
00:38allowing only Afrikaans and English.
00:41She has been accused of engaging in language segregation.
00:45But is there more to this?
00:47Welcome to the Flipside.
00:50South Africa's government of national unity hasn't gotten off to a smooth start.
00:55At least in the National Assembly.
00:58The Deputy Speaker, Anne-Lie Lothriet from the DA, which formed a coalition government with the ANC,
01:05apparently can only understand Afrikaans and English.
01:09For context, while the Deputy Speaker may have meant no ill motive,
01:14South Africa has a strained relationship with Afrikaans.
01:18The issue that started the 1976 uprisings was the Afrikaans issue.
01:25Where the natives at the time were forced to speak a language that was not theirs
01:30because they were enforcing it on us.
01:32Yes, the event that some argue kicked off the popular opposition against apartheid
01:38was about being forced to use the Afrikaans language.
01:41So, were the lawmakers justified?
01:44In reality, nothing new was happening in two senses.
01:48One is that most South Africans don't understand all South African languages
01:53and that's regardless of race.
01:55So, it's very possible that previous speakers, whether they were black or not,
02:00did not understand all the languages that would have been spoken in parliament.
02:04South Africa has 11 official languages.
02:07Allowing all of them to be spoken in parliament without a proper translation set up
02:12could pose a challenge if a speaker doesn't understand them.
02:15So, shouldn't this be obvious to the MPs?
02:19It's a minor form of protest, it's not a major stumbling block for the GNU.
02:25In fact, if anybody wants to really question the legitimacy of the GNU,
02:32parliament is a vehicle to do that.
02:35The new South African government of national unity is still in its early stages
02:40and has a long way to go.
02:42The clash over language in the National Assembly might be seen as an isolated hindrance,
02:47if resolved, but it suggests the presence of deeper issues.
02:51And that is the flip side.