Protests continue outside the closed gates of University of Pretoria in South Africa on Tuesday as the university considers its options on whether lectures should be led in English only or if courses taught in Afrikaans will remain.
Outside campus the Front National party and AfriForum pledged to protect and support Afrikaans speaking students on campus.
"Every language can be taught in South Africa because they are politicizing the whole thing now and trample on minorities in South Africa like Afrikaans speaking people, and we believe minority groups also have a right to be taught in their own language like Afrikaans," said Francois Cloete, a Spokesperson for Front National.
"We all have the right to study in our own language and I feel it is a fight that we have to stand for, we can't just stand back and let them do whatever they want to do, it is our right to stay here and to have classes in our own language," said one student at the protest.
On the other side of the divide, students in the the Economic Freedom Fighters(EFF) started the AfrikaansMustFall campaign, which demands the total removal of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at the university.
"We are in a democratic state. Why are we still using the pre-apartheid names and all those cultures? So, what we are hoping is for the management to come down and engage with the student leaders and find a way forward, because we have been saying lets engage as intellectuals, let's sit round the table and discuss what we need and why we are saying Afrikaans must fall, and why they are saying Afrikaans must not fall," said Amla Monageng, an EFF protester.
A meeting between the AfriForum group and the university's language task team has already taken place but no final decision has been made.
While the language policy protest action continues, other students, both black and white, joined hands to pray for unity and hope for an end to the violence.
"We are saying let's speak a message of hope, let's speak a message of love, let's speak a message of reconciliation towards our country, towards each and every one of the people that are in South Africa, to say to everyone you matter and you have a future in South Africa. One voice - black and white - united together, to say: our country has a future," said Khoatheli Sello, a student pastor.
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