Multilingualism at South African universities based on language policy at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
South Africa has eleven official national languages, including nine African languages. The other two are English, which is still considered the language of power in terms of access to education and well-paid professions, and Afrikaans, which is neither entirely European nor African and is mainly spoken by the Boers and Coloureds. They are enshrined in the Constitution and allow speakers to communicate in one of these languages and to use the service of interpreters to defend them in court. They should also receive school lessons in their mother tongue, but this is still lacking, not least because of the parents who demand English lessons from an early age, as they mean to secure their children a good start in life and later a well-paid profession. This article will deal with the policy of multilingualism at South African universities using the example of the University of the Witwatersrand.