ABSTRACT
The relationship between English and what we shall call simply the African languages is the crux of the language question in South Africa. Until recently, the spotlight was always put on the relationship between English and Afrikaans, a fact which reflects the colonial history of the country. Now that the democratic transformation has begun, the central issues in respect of which the majority of the people will put their imprint on this society are beginning to emerge clearly. Of these, there can be no doubt, the language dispensation is among the most important for the long-term development and stability of the country. It ought also to be said that even though people only learn from history in very special circumstances, South Africa’s intelligentsia is very conscious of the trajectories which were followed by other African countries in the period after the retreat of the imperialist powers, especially Britain, France and Belgium. There is, thus, just the slightest of possibilities that some of the more devastating policy mistakes that were made in most of those countries under their neo-colonial governments will be avoided in the case of South Africa.
