Irish airline Ryanair has angered South African passengers by forcing them to test information in the apartheid-era Afrikaans language.
Some described this move as “racist”, especially since the number of official languages in South Africa today is 11, and many say that they do not understand the “Afrikaans” language, which was imposed during the rule of the white minority.
In a statement, “Ryan Air” justified the use of this test by wanting to block the way for those trying to travel with forged South African passports, and said, “Due to the large number of fake South African passports, we ask travelers to Britain to fill out a written question form in Afrikaans”.
The statement indicated that “passengers who are unable to fill out the question form are prevented from traveling, and the full value of their tickets will be refunded.”
The test, which is reported to be tainted with spelling and grammatical errors, includes questions such as: What is the phone code for South Africa, what is the country’s capital, and who is the current president of South Africa.
Konrad Steenkamp, president of the South African Afrikaans Language Council, called the move “ridiculous”, saying it undermined the attempt to improve the language’s image.