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As the fallout from UK airline Ryanair’s decision to test South African passport holders’ general knowledge in Afrikaans continues, the Afrikaans Language Board says the quiz had major implications for the language in South Africa.
There was confusion and then anger last week after the low-cost airline introduced the quiz in Afrikaans before travellers were allowed on flights to and from the UK.
News24 reported on Friday that Ryanair confirmed that it asked South African passport holders to complete the quiz before being allowed to board their planes.
The CEO of the Afrikaans Language Board, Conrad Steenkamp, says the decision to conduct the test was “absurd”.
Steenkamp told City Press’ sister publication Rapport that the airline’s decision, together with the push back on the language in South Africa, makes it very difficult for the board as it tries to show that Afrikaans is a friendly language.
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Steenkamp says Ryanair’s move has divided people again and the airline has no authority to give that quiz to travellers before they can fly. He does not understand why it singled out Afrikaans, as the country has 11 official languages. In a tweet, the British high commissioner said the quiz was not a UK government requirement.
Steenkamp asks:
While he is aware that fraudulent passports are a problem and that people get them through corrupt means, other ways must be considered to make a distinction between who is a South African and who is not.
He says only 20 million South Africans speak or understand Afrikaans, meaning that the larger percentage of citizens who do not speak or understand the language could now be stopped at passport control, despite having valid passports.
He questions the airline’s decision, saying that about 21 million Dutch speakers on the continent will now find it easier to travel to the UK with forged South African passports.
“Furthermore, using Afrikaans to block people at your [UK] borders revives raw emotions and whips up negative sentiment against the language. It threatens the hard work of organisations such as the Afrikaanse Taalraad and many others to change assumptions and perceptions about Afrikaans. We have enough problems and do not need this too,” Steenkamp says.
The South African government said on Tuesday it was taken aback by Ryanair's decision to force UK-bound travelers holding the country's passport to take a test in Afrikaans language to prove nationality, calling the move a "backward profiling system".
The Irish low-cost airline had from last week started forcing UK-bound travelers with a South African passport to take a test in Afrikaans, a language spoken by just 12% of the country's population and often associated with apartheid and white minority rule.
Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, which does not operate flights to and from South Africa, had cited that it was doing this to curb high prevalence of fake South African passports.
The Department of Home Affairs in South Africa said the local government had measures that it regularly shares with airlines to curb any instances of fake documents.
"We are taken aback by the decision of this airline because the department regularly communicates with all airlines to update them on how to validate South African passports, including the look and feel," the department said.
All airlines have access to the Advanced Passenger Processing system which enables them to screen travelers before they depart and the government also runs a 24-hour service which airlines can use if they want to authenticate South African passports, it said.
"It is not clear to which extent the airline has used these services before resorting to this backward profiling system."
- Reuters
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