A decline in language rights violation complaints received by PanSALB - the case of Afrikaans

Since 2002 the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) has experienced a decline in the number of complaints received concerning alleged language rights violations. An investigation into the nature of and reasons for this decline showed that the decline can largely be attributed to the fact that the Afrikaans speech community no longer lodges complaints with PanSALB. This paper reports on the reasons for this decline. It is argued that this particular community has turned away from PanSALB and now rather engages in other strategies in order to overcome the perceived marginalisation of Afrikaans. However, what at first glance appears to be a case of language planning from the bottom rather than from the top, is complicated by the social and financial capital of this speech community.