University's English policy ruled lawful by SCA

The University of the Free State (UFS) acted lawfully when it adopted a new language policy in March last year‚ the SCA held yesterday when it upheld the university's appeal against a ruling of a full Bench of the Free State High Court in July last year. The lower court reviewed and set aside the decision by the university to adopt the new policy as unlawful. The policy replaced Afrikaans and English as parallel mediums of instruction with English as the primary medium. A TimesLIVE report notes the university had approved the dual language policy in 2003‚ but its rector at the time acknowledged the ‘unintended consequence’ of the parallel-medium policy segregating the lecturing rooms along racial lines. The university management accordingly sought and obtained a mandate from its council to formulate a new language policy in June 2015. The task was undertaken by the language committee.