By: Natasha Archary
Charlize Theron has received major backlash after her views that Afrikaans is a dying language caused a social media outrage in her home country.
The South African-born actress made the comments during a podcast on Spotify last week. Speaking to hosts Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett on the SmartLess series, Charlize said only 44 people speak Afrikaans.
Her comments were not welcomed by a number of South Africans who called out the “School of Good and Evil” actress for disrespecting their mother tongue.
“The thing about Afrikaans is that it’s not a helpful language and only about 44 people speak it. It’s a dying language.”
Charlize Theron on Afrikaans being a dying language
Charlize who was born in Benoni, on the East Rand has since been invited by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to “brainstorm” ways to protect the language.
On Friday, 18 November, the DA said, “Given her apparent concern about the risk Afrikaans is dying, we invite Ms. Theron to engage in discussion with the DA on her next visit, so that we can work together to protect her mother tongue from the ANC.”
DA Deputy Shadow Minister for Sport, Art and Culture, Veronica van Dyk
However, the PanSALB called Charlize’s views inaccurate and misleading, “These comments perpetuate the persistent misconception that Afrikaans is only spoken by white ‘boere’ South Africans, which could not be farther from the truth as 60% of the people that speak the language are black.”
The PanSALB also claims that there are approximately 8.4 million people around the world who speak Afrikaans, according to information from worlddata.info.
Also read: Ramaphosa arrives in the UK for King Charles III’s first state visit
