- The Western Cape government has suggested taking over the management of the Afrikaans Taal Museum and Monument.
- There has been public outrage over a proposal to rename the monument.
- On Saturday, residents, under the banner of the DA, protested the proposed renaming.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has vowed that the Western Cape government will protect its people, their culture and language in the province.
The Western Cape government is petitioning to take over management of the Afrikaans Taal Museum and Monument after outrage at a proposal to rename the Paarl monument.
Winde said:
The premier said he backed his Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Anroux Marais in her bid to get the province to take over control of the Afrikaans Taal Museum and Monument. If national government couldn't manage it, the province would, he said.
Marais said she had been in telephonic discussion with her national counterpart, Minister Nathi Mthethwa, last week, and he had made it clear that he was not changing the name of the monument.
Marais said during the discussion, Mthethwa had encouraged her to work on promoting other languages, in particular isiXhosa, as well.
The MEC said she responded by outlining that the province already had an official policy promoting English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, and that sporting and culture information was available in all three official languages in the Western Cape.
Marais said she informed Mthethwa that the province was already busy with initiatives to promote programmes to increase resources in IsiXhosa, including sport handbooks for netball, rugby and chess.
Following their telephonic discussion, Marais said she had also sent a letter to Mthethwa's office, in which she suggested that the museum be placed under the management of the Western Cape government for better governance. She said Mthethwa's office had acknowledged receipt of the letter but had not yet responded to her request.
The MEC stressed that the current museum staff and the council had been managing the Afrikaans Taal Monument very well, but added that as the Western Cape government they believed that the province would be able to handle the preservation of South Africa's heritage at all levels fairly and with professionalism, without any politicking.
Mthethwa's office had not responded to News24's requests for comment at the time of publication.
In a statement, the Afrikaans Language Museum and Monument said Mthethwa had, on 10 March 2022, said in Pretoria that the "name must change".
"This was during the annual signing ceremony of the shareholder compact agreement between the department and all heads and chairs of the public entities that fall under his portfolio. In response, the institution decided to launch a consultation process to investigate the feasibility of a possible name change," said Michael Jonas, director of the Afrikaans Language Museum and Monument.
The monument was established in 1975 to symbolise the diversity and growth of the Afrikaans language.
Marais said in an earlier statement:
On Saturday, the DA held a protest opposing the proposal to remove the word Afrikaans from the monument's name, during which the party called on Mthethwa to hand over management of the monument to the provincial government.
DA spokesperson Leon Schreiber said the monument had been designed to show the different influences on the language, including African and Malay languages.
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