The Free State health department has ordered public hospitals to limit the use of Afrikaans, saying the move was necessary to ensure safety of patients after some non-Afrikaans speaking medical staff complained they were struggling to follow treatment instructions written in the language.
The department said communication between staff and in wards should be mainly in English. It is a requirement that is seen drastically altering the way doctors are taught at the partly government-owned Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein – the only doctor-training facility in the Free State where Afrikaans is predominant.
Department of health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi said the instruction to use more English in public hospitals was not intended to undermine or do away with Afrikaans, a language spoken by the white Afrikaner community and many blacks in the Free State and across South Africa.
Mvambi said: “It is important to note that, our decision as the department is not about doing away with Afrikaans but it is about doing away with practices that seek to elevate Afrikaans to a stage where it becomes a barrier to entry (into medical school) and to a stage where it seems it is the only official language of the country and the province.”…
South Africa Today – South Africa News
