Sol Plaatje University is a public university located in Kimberley , South Africa . Established in 2014, it is the first and only university located in the Northern Cape province.
92-528: The idea of establishing a university in the Northern Cape gained political endorsement in 2012, most notably in President Jacob Zuma’s announcement of 5 July 2012 that the seat and main campus for the university would be the inner city of Kimberley . It was believed that there was “potential to inject new life and purpose into this historic mining city”. The idea achieved legal substance when
184-500: A better life"), is in the Nǀu language of the Nǁnǂe (ǂKhomani) people. It was given in 1997 by one of the language's last speakers, Ms. Elsie Vaalbooi of Rietfontein , who has since died. It was South Africa's first officially registered motto in a Khoisan language . Subsequently, South Africa's national motto , ǃKe e ǀxarra ǁke , was derived from the extinct ǀXam language . The Northern Cape
276-620: A big issue in the province. Unemployment was reported to be at 24.9% during Q4, 2013. Unemployment also declined from 119,000 in Q4, 2012 to 109,000 in Q4, 2013. The Northern Cape is also home to the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which is located 75 km North-West of Carnarvon . The economy of the Northern Cape relies heavily on two sectors, mining and agriculture, which employ 57% (Tertiary Sector) of all employees in
368-542: A combination of existing and purpose-built structures in the inner city of Kimberley, specifically the present Civic Centre including parts of the Oppenheimer Gardens and surrounding buildings. These include the former Cape Provincial Administration building which has been used by the National Institute for Higher Education . Provincial MEC Pauline Williams (Sport, Arts and Culture) has referred to
460-461: A decreasing number of first language Afrikaans speakers in South Africa from 13.5% in 2011 to 10.6% in 2022. The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) projects that a growing majority of Afrikaans speakers will be Coloured . Afrikaans speakers experience higher employment rates than other South African language groups, though as of 2012 half a million were unemployed. Despite
552-473: A higher proportion of the population in the Northern Cape than in any other province except for the Western Cape . In the 2022 census, 54.6% of the population reported their first language as Afrikaans , 35.7% as Setswana , 4.5% as Xhosa , and 2.4% as English . The Northern Cape is the only province in which native Afrikaans-speakers form a majority of the population. It is also the province with
644-536: A lesser extent) Botswana , Zambia and Zimbabwe . It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland ( Hollandic dialect ) spoken by the predominantly Dutch settlers and enslaved population of the Dutch Cape Colony , where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German and
736-587: A majority in the provincial legislature, the ANC reached an agreement with the Democratic Party (DP), which voted for the ANC's Manne Dipico as premier in exchange for the election of the DP's sole MLP, Ethne Papenfus, as speaker of the legislature. The National Party formed the official opposition. In the 1999 provincial election , the ANC substantially increased its vote share and won an overall majority in
828-575: A national, but not official, language. There is a much smaller number of Afrikaans speakers among Zimbabwe's white minority, as most have left the country since 1980. Afrikaans was also a medium of instruction for schools in Bophuthatswana , an Apartheid-era Bantustan . Eldoret in Kenya was founded by Afrikaners. There are also around 30.000 South-Africans in the Netherlands , of which
920-428: A phased approach towards formative and professional bachelor's degrees in the study fields of Engineering and Management Sciences.” Specifically, the following programmes are considered: Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( Afrikaans : Noord-Kaap [ˈnuərtkɑːp] ; Tswana : Kapa Bokone ; Xhosa : Mntla-Koloni ) is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa . It
1012-608: A record of intention was signed by officials in Kimberley on 19 March 2013. Party to the agreement were national Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande , the Northern Cape Province's acting premier Grizelda Cjiekella , and the mayor of the Sol Plaatje Municipality , Agnes Ntlhangula . The signing of the record of intention was a preparatory step towards a gazetted notice which would bring
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#17327986757071104-622: A second language. It is widely taught in South African schools, with about 10.3 million second-language students. Afrikaans is offered at many universities outside South Africa, including in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Russia and the United States. In Afrikaans grammar, there is no distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs 'to be' and 'to have'. In addition, verbs do not conjugate differently depending on
1196-460: A vibrant student population. In creating a strong academic hub, the individuality of the province would be drawn upon to develop a unique academic focus. It is envisaged that the university in the Northern Cape would be a comprehensive, multi-campus University with the seat and main campus in Kimberley. The qualification type would focus on “Higher Certificate, Advanced Certificate and Diploma level as vocational and technology-focused programmes with
1288-515: Is "a pure and proper language" for religious purposes, especially among the deeply Calvinist Afrikaans religious community that previously had been sceptical of a Bible translation that varied from the Dutch version that they were used to. In 1983 a fresh translation marked the 50th anniversary of the 1933 version. The final editing of this edition was done by E. P. Groenewald, A. H. van Zyl, P. A. Verhoef, J. L. Helberg and W. Kempen. This translation
1380-610: Is a groundswell movement within Afrikaans to be inclusive, and to promote itself along with the indigenous official languages. In Namibia, the percentage of Afrikaans speakers declined from 11.4% (2001 Census) to 10.4% (2011 Census). The major concentrations are in Hardap (41.0%), ǁKaras (36.1%), Erongo (20.5%), Khomas (18.5%), Omaheke (10.0%), Otjozondjupa (9.4%), Kunene (4.2%), and Oshikoto (2.3%). Some native speakers of Bantu languages and English also speak Afrikaans as
1472-526: Is absent from the other West Germanic standard languages. For example: Both French and San origins have been suggested for double negation in Afrikaans. While double negation is still found in Low Franconian dialects in West Flanders and in some "isolated" villages in the centre of the Netherlands (such as Garderen ), it takes a different form, which is not found in Afrikaans. The following
1564-475: Is an example: Compare with Ek wil dit nie doen nie , which changes the meaning to 'I want not to do this'. Whereas Ek wil nie dit doen nie emphasizes a lack of desire to act, Ek wil dit nie doen nie emphasizes the act itself. The -ne was the Middle Dutch way to negate but it has been suggested that since -ne became highly non-voiced, nie or niet was needed to complement
1656-692: Is dominated by the Karoo Basin and consists mostly of sedimentary rocks and some dolerite intrusions. The south and south-east of the province is high-lying, 1,200–1,900 metres (3,900–6,200 ft), in the Roggeveld and Nuweveld districts. The west coast is dominated by the Namaqualand region, famous for its spring flowers. This area is hilly to mountainous and consists of granites and metamorphic rocks . The central areas are generally flat with interspersed salt pans. Kimberlite intrusions punctuate
1748-811: Is expected to increase gradually towards a target of 7 500 students by 2024. The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) appointed the University of the Witwatersrand to set up a DHET New Universities Project Management Team to plan for the new university in Kimberley. Nominations were invited in December 2012 for members of an Interim Council for the new university. The Interim Council announced by President Jacob Zuma on 25 July 2013 comprises: Ms Jennifer Glennie, as Chairperson, and, as members: Mr Abel Madonsela, Mr Maruping Lekwene, Dr Yvonne Muthien, and Prof Vishnu Padayachee. The Chancellor of
1840-569: Is neither a creole nor a direct descendant of Dutch, but a fusion of two transmission pathways. Most of the first settlers whose descendants today are the Afrikaners were from the United Provinces (now Netherlands), with up to one-sixth of the community of French Huguenot origin, and a seventh from Germany. African and Asian workers, Cape Coloured children of European settlers and Khoikhoi women, and slaves contributed to
1932-537: Is seen as the dawn of a new era in Afrikaans cinema. Several short films have been created and more feature-length movies, such as Poena Is Koning and Bakgat (both in 2008) have been produced, besides the 2011 Afrikaans-language film Skoonheid , which was the first Afrikaans film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival . The film Platteland was also released in 2011. The Afrikaans film industry started gaining international recognition via
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#17327986757072024-659: Is the Orange (or Gariep ) River Basin, draining the interior of South Africa westwards into the Atlantic Ocean. (The political philosopher Neville Alexander has used the idea of the 'Garieb' as a metaphor for nationhood in South Africa, a flowing together, in preference to the rainbow metaphor where the diverse colours remain distinct). The principal tributary of the Orange is the Vaal River , which flows through part of
2116-469: Is the basis of the economy in the southern Karoo areas of the province. 30°S 22°E / 30°S 22°E / -30; 22 Afrikaans language Afrikaans ( / ˌ æ f r ɪ ˈ k ɑː n s / AF -rih- KAHNSS , / ˌ ɑː f -, - ˈ k ɑː n z / AHF -, - KAHNZ ) is a West Germanic language , spoken in South Africa , Namibia and (to
2208-460: The -ne . With time the -ne disappeared in most Dutch dialects. The double negative construction has been fully grammaticalised in standard Afrikaans and its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as the examples below show: A notable exception to this is the use of the negating grammar form that coincides with negating the English present participle . In this case there is only
2300-605: The Evangelie volgens Markus ( Gospel of Mark , lit. 'Gospel according to Mark'); however, this translation was never published. The manuscript is to be found in the South African National Library, Cape Town. The first official translation of the entire Bible into Afrikaans was in 1933 by J. D. du Toit , E. E. van Rooyen, J. D. Kestell, H. C. M. Fourie, and BB Keet . This monumental work established Afrikaans as 'n suiwer en ordentlike taal , that
2392-767: The Afrikaner people in the province. The Northern Cape is also the home of over 1,000 San who emigrated from Namibia following the independence of the country; they had served as trackers and scouts for the South African Defence Force during the South African Border War , and feared reprisals from their former foes. They were awarded a settlement in Platfontein in 1999 by the Mandela government. The precolonial history of
2484-696: The Arabic alphabet : see Arabic Afrikaans . Later, Afrikaans, now written with the Latin script , started to appear in newspapers and political and religious works in around 1850 (alongside the already established Dutch). In 1875 a group of Afrikaans-speakers from the Cape formed the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaaners ('Society for Real Afrikaners'), and published a number of books in Afrikaans including grammars, dictionaries, religious materials and histories. Until
2576-932: The Augrabies Falls , and seldom actually flowing into the Orange River, is the Molopo River , which comes down from the Kalahari in the north. With its tributary, the Nossob River , it defines part of the international boundary between South Africa and Botswana . Further tributaries of the Molopo River include the Kuruman River , fed by the Moshaweng River and Kgokgole River , and the Matlhwaring River . Flowing west into
2668-596: The Congress of the People (COPE), a new splinter party from the ANC, had a strong showing and replaced the DA as the official opposition. Jenkins was later replaced as Premier by Sylvia Lucas in 2013. The 2014 election saw the ANC returned to power once again with an increased mandate, while DA once again became the official opposition, after the collapse of COPE. The newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) also entered
2760-625: The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) won a seat in the legislature for the first time since 2004. Zamani Saul replaced Lucas as premier after the election. The Northern Cape Province is divided into five district municipalities . The district municipalities are in turn divided into 27 local municipalities : Population 50,000+ Population 10,000+ Population < 10,000 As reported by the Northern Cape Provincial Government, unemployment still remains
2852-538: The Great Karoo are major transport nodes between Johannesburg , Cape Town and Gqeberha . Kuruman can be found in the north-east and is known as a mission station. It is also well known for its artesian spring and Eye of Kuruman . The Orange River flows through the province, forming the borders with the Free State in the southeast and with Namibia to the northwest. The river is also used to irrigate
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2944-535: The Khoisan languages , an estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin. Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and different spellings. There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form . The name of the language comes directly from the Dutch word Afrikaansch (now spelled Afrikaans ) meaning 'African'. It
3036-539: The McGregor Museum in Kimberley becoming "a serious role-player" with its collections and research disciplines being key resources and "the nucleus of a future faculty." In May 2013 the Department of Higher Education and Training New Universities Project Management Team (Northern Cape) invited expressions of interest from architects to participate in a two-stage architectural ideas competition for addressing
3128-589: The Northern Cape Provincial Legislature . The premier then selects the members of the provincial Executive Council (cabinet). The current premier is Zamani Saul of the African National Congress (ANC), who has held the position since 2019. The provincial legislature is elected every five years by a system of party-list proportional representation . In the most recent provincial election, held in 2024 ,
3220-733: The Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, were involved. Afrikaans descended from Dutch dialects in the 17th century. It belongs to a West Germanic sub-group, the Low Franconian languages . Other West Germanic languages related to Afrikaans are German, English, the Frisian languages , Yiddish , and the unstandardised language Low German . Afrikaans is also widely spoken in Namibia. Before independence, Afrikaans had equal status with German as an official language. Since independence in 1990, Afrikaans has had constitutional recognition as
3312-589: The Senate , in which the Afrikaans language was declared a variety of Dutch. The Constitution of 1961 reversed the position of Afrikaans and Dutch, so that English and Afrikaans were the official languages, and Afrikaans was deemed to include Dutch. The Constitution of 1983 removed any mention of Dutch altogether. The Afrikaans Language Monument is on a hill overlooking Paarl in the Western Cape Province . Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it
3404-538: The Synod of Dordrecht of 1618 and was thus in an archaic form of Dutch. This was hard for Dutch speakers to understand, and increasingly unintelligible for Afrikaans speakers. C. P. Hoogehout, Arnoldus Pannevis [ af ] , and Stephanus Jacobus du Toit were the first Afrikaans Bible translators. Important landmarks in the translation of the Scriptures were in 1878 with C. P. Hoogehout's translation of
3496-564: The constitution of the Western Cape , which went into effect in 1998, declares Afrikaans to be an official language of the province alongside English and Xhosa . The Afrikaans-language general-interest family magazine Huisgenoot has the largest readership of any magazine in the country. When the British design magazine Wallpaper described Afrikaans as "one of the world's ugliest languages" in its September 2005 article about
3588-464: The diamond rush to the Kimberley area resulted in industrial archaeological landscapes in those areas which herald the modern era in South African history. The Northern Cape is South Africa's largest province, and distances between towns are enormous due to its sparse population. Its size is just shy of the size of the American state of Montana and slightly larger than that of Germany. The province
3680-526: The monument , South African billionaire Johann Rupert (chairman of the Richemont Group ), responded by withdrawing advertising for brands such as Cartier , Van Cleef & Arpels , Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill from the magazine. The author of the article, Bronwyn Davies, was an English -speaking South African. An estimated 90 to 95 percent of the Afrikaans lexicon is ultimately of Dutch origin, and there are few lexical differences between
3772-452: The "language of the white oppressor" by some, pressure has been increased to remove Afrikaans as a teaching language in South African universities, resulting in bloody student protests in 2015. Under South Africa's Constitution of 1996, Afrikaans remains an official language , and has equal status to English and nine other languages. The new policy means that the use of Afrikaans is now often reduced in favour of English, or to accommodate
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3864-471: The ANC won a plurality of the vote but failed to win an overall majority of seats. After the election, the ANC declined to form a formal coalition, but the ANC's Zamani Saul was reelected as premier with support from the Patriotic Alliance and Freedom Front Plus . The Democratic Alliance (DA) is the second largest party in the province and forms the official opposition . The results of
3956-676: The Arabic script. In 1861, L.H. Meurant published his Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar ( Conversation between Nicholas Truthsayer and John Doubter ), which is considered to be the first book published in Afrikaans. The first grammar book was published in 1876; a bilingual dictionary was later published in 1902. The main modern Afrikaans dictionary in use is the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT). A new authoritative dictionary, called Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT),
4048-673: The Atlantic, in Namaqualand , is the Buffels River and, further south, the Groen River . Mostly arid to semiarid, few areas in the province receive more than 400 mm (16 in) of rainfall per annum and the average annual rainfall over the province is 202 mm (8.0 in). Rainfall generally increases from west to east from a minimum average of 20 mm (0.79 in) to a maximum of 540 mm (21 in) per year. The west experiences most rainfall in winter, while
4140-766: The Boers and their servants." In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the South African government as a distinct language, rather than simply a vernacular of Dutch. On 8 May 1925, that is 23 years after the Second Boer War ended, the Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 was passed—mostly due to the efforts of the Afrikaans-language movement —at a joint sitting of the House of Assembly and
4232-519: The Dutch Cape Colony between 1652 and 1672 had a Dutch father. Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrence Kaufman argue that Afrikaans' development as a separate language was "heavily conditioned by nonwhites who learned Dutch imperfectly as a second language." Beginning in about 1815, Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa, written with
4324-404: The Karoo rocks, giving the province its most precious natural resource, diamonds . The north is primarily Kalahari Desert, characterised by parallel red sand dunes and acacia tree dry savanna. Northern Cape has a shoreline in the west on the South Atlantic Ocean. It borders the following areas of Namibia and Botswana: Domestically, it borders the following provinces: The major river system
4416-408: The Langeberg Mountains, but with evidence of influence as far as the Upington area in the eighteenth century. From that period the archaeological record also reflects the development of a complex colonial frontier when precolonial social formations were considerably disrupted and there is an increasing 'fabric heavy' imprint of built structures, ash-heaps, and so on. The copper mines of Namaqualand and
4508-448: The Northern Cape from the vicinity of Warrenton . The Vaal, in turn, has tributaries within the province: the Harts River and the Riet River , which has its own major tributary, the Modder River . Above the Orange-Vaal confluence, the Seekoei River drains part of the northeastern Karoo into the Orange River above the Vanderkloof Dam . Next downstream from the Orange-Vaal confluence is the Brak River , which flows nonperennially from
4600-417: The Northern Cape is reflected in a rich, mainly Stone Age, archaeological heritage . Cave sites include Wonderwerk Cave near Kuruman, which has a uniquely long sequence stretching from the turn of the twentieth century at the surface to more than 1 million (and possibly nearly 2 million) years in its basal layer (where stone tools , occurring in very low density, may be Oldowan ). Many sites across
4692-434: The University is Judge Steven Majiedt.The Vice Chancellor is Professor Andrew Crouch. A study into the feasibility of both the infrastructure and operations for the new university had been submitted to national Treasury in September 2012. Treasury endorsed the plan (including that for a university in Mpumalanga), allocating R2 billion for the period 2013 to 2016. It is anticipated that the Sol Plaatje University would occupy
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#17327986757074784-404: The case of Driekops Eiland near Kimberley), in a river bed. In the north eastern part of the province there are sites attributable to the Iron Age such as Dithakong . Environmental factors have meant that the spread of Iron Age farming westwards (from the 17th century – but dating from the early first millennium AD in the eastern part of South Africa) was constrained mainly to the area east of
4876-401: The challenges of demotion and emigration that it faces in South Africa, the Afrikaans vernacular remains competitive, being popular in DSTV pay channels and several internet sites, while generating high newspaper and music CD sales. A resurgence in Afrikaans popular music since the late 1990s has invigorated the language, especially among a younger generation of South Africans. A recent trend is
4968-762: The course of the 18th century. As early as the mid-18th century and as recently as the mid-20th century, Afrikaans was known in standard Dutch as a 'kitchen language' (Dutch: kombuistaal ), lacking the prestige accorded, for example, even by the educational system in Africa, to languages spoken outside Africa. Other early epithets setting apart Kaaps Hollands (' Cape Dutch ', i.e. Afrikaans) as putatively beneath official Dutch standards included geradbraakt , gebroken and onbeschaafd Hollands ('mutilated, broken, or uncivilised Dutch'), as well as verkeerd Nederlands ('incorrect Dutch'). Historical linguist Hans den Besten theorises that modern Standard Afrikaans derives from two sources: So Afrikaans, in his view,
5060-445: The development of Afrikaans. The slave population was made up of people from East Africa, West Africa, Mughal India , Madagascar , and the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). A number were also indigenous Khoisan people, who were valued as interpreters, domestic servants, and labourers. Many free and enslaved women married or cohabited with the male Dutch settlers. M. F. Valkhoff argued that 75% of children born to female slaves in
5152-409: The early 20th century Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect , alongside Standard Dutch , which it eventually replaced as an official language. Before the Boer wars , "and indeed for some time afterwards, Afrikaans was regarded as inappropriate for educated discourse. Rather, Afrikaans was described derogatorily as 'a kitchen language' or 'a bastard jargon', suitable for communication mainly between
5244-483: The east receives most of its moisture from late summer thunderstorms. Many areas experience extreme heat, with the hottest temperatures in South Africa measured along the Namibian border. Summers maximums are generally 30 °C (86 °F) or higher, sometimes higher than 40 °C (104 °F). Winters are usually frosty and clear, with southern areas sometimes becoming bitterly cold, such as Sutherland , which often receives snow and temperatures occasionally drop below
5336-473: The government for Afrikaans, in terms of education, social events, media (TV and radio), and general status throughout the country, given that it now shares its place as official language with ten other languages. Nevertheless, Afrikaans remains more prevalent in the media – radio, newspapers and television – than any of the other official languages, except English. More than 300 book titles in Afrikaans are published annually. South African census figures suggest
5428-406: The increased availability of pre-school educational CDs and DVDs. Such media also prove popular with the extensive Afrikaans-speaking emigrant communities who seek to retain language proficiency in a household context. Afrikaans-language cinema showed signs of new vigour in the early 21st century. The 2007 film Ouma se slim kind , the first full-length Afrikaans movie since Paljas in 1998,
5520-488: The institution into being as a legal entity. The university would be one of the first two to be established in post-apartheid South Africa – the other to be situated in Mpumalanga . Launched in a ceremony in Kimberley on 19 September 2013, it had been formally established as a public university in terms of Section 20 of the Higher Education Act of 1997, by way of Government Notice 630, dated 22 August 2013. Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, observed at
5612-414: The language distance for Anglophones once remarked that the differences between (Standard) Dutch and Afrikaans are comparable to those between the Received Pronunciation and Southern American English . Afrikaans is an official language of the Republic of South Africa and a recognised national language of the Republic of Namibia. Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a loss of preferential treatment by
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#17327986757075704-525: The language of instruction for half the subjects taught in non-White schools (with English continuing for the other half). Although English is the mother tongue of only 8.2% of the population, it is the language most widely understood, and the second language of a majority of South Africans. Afrikaans is more widely spoken than English in the Northern and Western Cape provinces, several hundred kilometres from Soweto. The Black community's opposition to Afrikaans and preference for continuing English instruction
5796-501: The launch that this “is the first new university (in South Africa) to be launched since 1994 and as such is a powerful symbol of the country’s democracy, inclusiveness, and growth. It represents a new order of African intellect, with a firm focus on innovation and excellence." Previously announcing the name for the university, on 25 July 2013, President Jacob Zuma mentioned the development of academic niche areas that did not exist elsewhere, or were under-represented, in South Africa. "Given
5888-399: The legislature for the first time. Sylvia Lucas was re-elected to her first full term as premier. In the 2019 election , the Northern Cape was considered competitive, with the DA hoping to win the province. In the end, the ANC returned as the majority party, albeit with a reduced majority. The DA was once again the official opposition with an increased seat total. The EFF made gains, while
5980-513: The likes of big Afrikaans Hollywood film stars, like Charlize Theron ( Monster ) and Sharlto Copley ( District 9 ) promoting their mother tongue. SABC 3 announced early in 2009 that it would increase Afrikaans programming due to the "growing Afrikaans-language market and [their] need for working capital as Afrikaans advertising is the only advertising that sells in the current South African television market". In April 2009, SABC3 started screening several Afrikaans-language programmes. There
6072-425: The majority are of Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaner and Coloured South-African descent. A much smaller and unknown number of speakers also reside in the Dutch Caribbean . Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Afrikaans speakers today are not Afrikaners or Boers , but Coloureds . In 1976, secondary-school pupils in Soweto began a rebellion in response to the government's decision that Afrikaans be used as
6164-466: The many vineyards in the arid region near Upington . Native speakers of Afrikaans comprise a higher percentage of the population in the Northern Cape than in any other province. The Northern Cape's four official languages are Afrikaans, Tswana , Xhosa , and English . Minorities speak the other official languages of South Africa and a few people speak indigenous languages such as Nama and Khwe . The provincial motto, Sa ǁa ǃaĩsi 'uĩsi ("We go to
6256-418: The most recent provincial election in 2024 are as follows: The ANC consistently has been the largest party in the Northern Cape since the end of Apartheid, although its position has been less dominant than it traditionally has been in most other provinces. In the first democratic provincial elections in 1994 , the ANC emerged as the largest party but failed to win an overall majority of seats. In order to form
6348-419: The need for new buildings and “to encourage innovative ideas, and best practice concepts, as well as to identify talented designers to participate in the design of the university precincts and buildings.” Most of the newly built buildings have won regional and national awards for architecture since completion while the central auditorium building designed by Henri Comrie of URBA Architects and Urban Designers won
6440-434: The other official languages. In 1996, for example, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reduced the amount of television airtime in Afrikaans, while South African Airways dropped its Afrikaans name Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens from its livery . Similarly, South Africa's diplomatic missions overseas now display the name of the country only in English and their host country's language, and not in Afrikaans. Meanwhile,
6532-410: The other way round. Mutual intelligibility thus tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans speakers to understand Dutch. In general, mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is far better than between Dutch and Frisian or between Danish and Swedish . The South African poet writer Breyten Breytenbach , attempting to visualise
6624-411: The past tense is also often replaced with the perfect.) When telling a longer story, Afrikaans speakers usually avoid the perfect and simply use the present tense, or historical present tense instead (as is possible, but less common, in English as well). A particular feature of Afrikaans is its use of the double negative ; it is classified in Afrikaans as ontkennende vorm and is something that
6716-536: The population described themselves as being atheist, agnostic, or having no religious affiliation. The Northern Cape provincial government is based in Kimberley , the provincial capital. The Northern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa also sits in Kimberley. Like South Africa's other provinces, the Northern Cape has a parliamentary system of government, with the provincial premier elected by
6808-635: The prize for the best building for higher education at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) held in Lisbon in 2022. Programmes that have been reported in the media would be in disciplines such as information technology and computer sciences, engineering, and agriculture; studies in management focusing on business and hospitality management; nursing as a focus of health sciences; with specializations in teacher education, indigenous languages, heritage studies, and art also being planned. It
6900-489: The province, mostly in open air locales or in sediments alongside rivers or pans, document Earlier, Middle and Later Stone Age habitation. From Later Stone Age times, mainly, there is a wealth of rock art sites – most of which are in the form of rock engravings such as at Wildebeest Kuil and many sites in the area known as ǀXam -ka !kau , in the Karoo . They occur on hilltops, slopes, rock outcrops and occasionally (as in
6992-489: The province. Most famous for the diamond mines around Kimberley , it also has mining activities for Manganese and iron ore. The Northern Cape also has a substantial agricultural area around the Orange River , including most of South Africa's sultana vineyards. Some Wine of Origin areas have been demarcated. The Orange River also attracts visitors who enjoy rafting tours around Vioolsdrif . Extensive sheep raising
7084-556: The provincial legislature. Thereafter the ANC would continue to maintain a majority in the legislature until 2024 . After the 2004 election , the ANC's Dipuo Peters replaced Dipico as Premier, and the Democratic Alliance (DA) replaced the New National Party as the official opposition. Following the 2009 election , which was again won the by ANC, the ANC's Hazel Jenkins became the new Premier, while
7176-403: The rich heritage of Kimberley and the Northern Cape in general," Zuma said, "it is envisaged that Sol Plaatje will specialise in heritage studies, including interconnected academic fields such as museum management , archaeology , indigenous languages , and restoration architecture ." The university opened in 2014, accommodating a modest initial intake of 135 students. The student complement
7268-473: The second-highest proportion of Setswana speakers, after North West province. The population of the Northern Cape is overwhelmingly Christian . As of the 2022 census, 97.8% of the population described themselves as Christians , the highest proportion among South Africa's provinces. Among other religions, 0.8% of the population described themselves as Muslim , and 0.7% of the population stated that they practiced Traditional African religions. Only 0.3% of
7360-648: The south and is in turn fed by the Ongers River , rising in the vicinities of Hanover and Richmond respectively. Along the Orange River near the town of Kakamas , the Hartebeest River drains the central Karoo . Above Kenhardt the Hartebeest is known as the Sak River , which has its source on the northern side of the escarpment, southeast of Williston . Further downstream from Kakamas, below
7452-442: The subject. For example, Only a handful of Afrikaans verbs have a preterite , namely the auxiliary wees ('to be'), the modal verbs , and the verb dink ('to think'). The preterite of mag ('may') is rare in contemporary Afrikaans. All other verbs use the perfect tense, het + past participle (ge-), for the past. Therefore, there is no distinction in Afrikaans between I drank and I have drunk . (In colloquial German,
7544-537: The two languages. Afrikaans has a considerably more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, particularly in written form. Afrikaans acquired some lexical and syntactical borrowings from other languages such as Malay , Khoisan languages , Portuguese, and Bantu languages , and Afrikaans has also been significantly influenced by South African English . Dutch speakers are confronted with fewer non-cognates when listening to Afrikaans than
7636-503: The −10 °C (14 °F) mark. As of the 2022 census , the Northern Cape had a population of 1,355,629, an increase of 18.3% from the prior census in 2011 . It is least populous and by a considerable margin the least densely populated of South Africa's nine provinces. The median age is 27, an increase of 2 years from 2011. In the 2022 census, 50.1% of the population described themselves as Black African , 41.6% as Coloured , 7.3% as White and 0.8% as Indian/Asian . Coloureds form
7728-667: Was also suggested that the university was “expected to offer postgraduate studies in astronomy, as well as in applied sciences such as renewable energy, low carbon energy, hydrology, water resource management, and climate variability.” The DHET New Universities Project Management Team website indicates the intention that the new university should have unique programmes and research priorities enabling it to attract students, academics and researchers nationally and internationally. This implies academic missions that would develop towards specialist niche areas not available elsewhere in South Africa, attracting and retaining skilled staff, while inspiring
7820-703: Was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley . It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park , part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and an international park shared with Botswana . It also includes the Augrabies Falls and the diamond mining regions in Kimberley and Alexander Bay . The Namaqualand region in the west is famous for its Namaqualand daisies . The southern towns of De Aar and Colesberg found within
7912-589: Was erected on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Society of Real Afrikaners , and the 50th anniversary of Afrikaans being declared an official language of South Africa in distinction to Dutch. The earliest Afrikaans texts were some doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Afrikaans used the Latin alphabet around this time, although the Cape Muslim community used
8004-572: Was influenced by Eugene Nida 's theory of dynamic equivalence which focused on finding the nearest equivalent in the receptor language to the idea that the Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic wanted to convey. A new translation, Die Bybel: 'n Direkte Vertaling was released in November 2020. It is the first truly ecumenical translation of the Bible in Afrikaans as translators from various churches, including
8096-460: Was one of three provinces made out of the Cape Province in 1994, the others being Western Cape to the south and Eastern Cape to the southeast. Politically, it had been dominated since 1994 by the African National Congress (ANC). Ethnic issues are important in the politics of the Northern Cape. For example, it is the site of the Orania settlement, whose leaders have called for a Volkstaat for
8188-399: Was previously referred to as 'Cape Dutch' ( Kaap-Hollands or Kaap-Nederlands ), a term also used to refer to the early Cape settlers collectively, or the derogatory 'kitchen Dutch' ( kombuistaal ) from its use by slaves of colonial settlers "in the kitchen". The Afrikaans language arose in the Dutch Cape Colony , through a gradual divergence from European Dutch dialects , during
8280-679: Was the translation of the whole Bible into Afrikaans. While significant advances had been made in the textual criticism of the Bible, especially the Greek New Testament , the 1933 translation followed the Textus Receptus and was closely akin to the Statenbijbel . Before this, most Cape Dutch-Afrikaans speakers had to rely on the Dutch Statenbijbel . This Statenvertaling had its origins with
8372-549: Was under development As of 2018. The official orthography of Afrikaans is the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls , compiled by Die Taalkommissie . The Afrikaners primarily were Protestants, of the Dutch Reformed Church of the 17th century. Their religious practices were later influenced in South Africa by British ministries during the 1800s. A landmark in the development of the language
8464-622: Was underlined when the government rescinded the policy one month after the uprising: 96% of Black schools chose English (over Afrikaans or native languages) as the language of instruction. Afrikaans-medium schools were also accused of using language policy to deter Black African parents. Some of these parents, in part supported by provincial departments of education, initiated litigation which enabled enrolment with English as language of instruction. By 2006 there were 300 single-medium Afrikaans schools, compared to 2,500 in 1994, after most converted to dual-medium education. Due to Afrikaans being viewed as
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