South African Universities at a Crossroads: The Imperialist Global Knowledge Economy as a Barrier to Multilingual Higher Education

There are several global, regional, and local policies on the promotion of inclusive and equitable education in Africa. However, African universities in general and South African universities in particular, are at a crossroads 30 years into democracy due to the dominance of English as the language of research, teaching, and learning in higher education. English is used as the dominant language of science, research, epistemological pedagogy, and embodiment of knowledge. In this study, I examine how colonial legacies and the global knowledge economy have contributed to marginalising Indigenous languages in South African universities, thereby constraining multilingual higher education. South African universities' over reliance on English has hierarchised languages in ways that relegate Indigenous languages to the periphery. South African higher education is at a crossroads because on one hand, the global knowledge economy characterises universities as marketplaces whereas on the other hand, student movements demand transformation and decolonisation. In this paper, I employ a critical discourse analysis (CDA)-social justice frameworks to review the vision and mission statements and institutional language policies of a South African historically Black university, historically White university, and a university of technology. The CDA-social justice frameworks approach unmasks the deeply institutionalised global market competitive posture of universities, and unravels the social injustices. A key finding is that the imperialist global knowledge economy is a barrier to multilingual higher education.