This is the opinion of a Tongaat principal and some of his pupils who say the language has no place in former Indian schools.
Buffelsdale Secondary principal Vishnu Naidoo sent a letter to the national Department of Education earlier this year asking it to address the issue of Afrikaans in former Indian schools in the province.
He again raised the matter this week, ahead of the matric examinations.
Naidoo said 49 pupils failed Afrikaans last year with below 30%.
"As far as Indians in this country are concerned, this is the language of the oppressor. If 20 of these pupils obtained a pass in Afrikaans, then our school would have achieved an 80% pass rate," he said.
"It is a crime to force Indian children to continue to learn the language of the oppressor. What strategy does government have to redress this issue? Is it necessary for all pupils to do two languages at matric level? Afrikaans is irrelevant to Indians in KwaZulu-Natal."
He added that pupils shied away from learning isiZulu because it was "far too difficult for them".
"When are Indians in KZN ever going to need Afrikaans again? It has been 15 years since democracy, and yet kids are still learning it. It is a disadvantage to pupils."
He added that if it was necessary for pupils to learn a second language, it should be an Eastern language.
The school offers Tamil, Hindi and Urdu as additional subjects, but the subjects are not part of the university points system.
Naidoo said that in 1980 Indian children in Chatsworth went on strike because they were forced to study Afrikaans.
"I remember this very clearly. Indian pupils refused to study Afrikaans, because it was the language of the apartheid oppressor, and now nothing has changed. The language still torments the kids."
He said he would consider such protest action if the department didn't respond positively to his request.
A Chatsworth high school principal who asked not to be named agreed that Afrikaans was irrelevant to Indian pupils because they had no motivation to study it.
"Kids don't seem to have any motivation to study it. They have no interest in it because they know they will never use it."
He added that it was also difficult to find Afrikaans teachers.
"There are no teachers out there who are prepared to study Afrikaans any more, and it's a big problem for us to find someone."
However, Sudesh Panday, head of the language department at Greenbury Secondary in Phoenix, said that matric pupils at the school had excelled in Afrikaans.
"We have a unique approach to Afrikaans. We are positive about the language and don't teach it as the language of the oppressor."
Panday disagreed that the language was irrelevant to Indian pupils, saying 90% of pupils went on to study in Gauteng and the Western Cape, where Afrikaans was spoken.
Duncan Hindle, director of the Department of Education, said it was department policy for pupils to learn two languages.
However, he said there was no compulsion for pupils to learn Afrikaans, and principals could apply for their pupils to learn any other of South Africa's official languages.
"We are a multi-lingual country, and therefore any two of the official languages have to be taught in all our schools."
He added that Eastern languages were not a viable second-language option, as they were not an official language of the Constitution.
TELL US: What do you think of the principal's request to the department? E-mail your responses to kznextra@sundaytimes.co.za by 11am on Wednesday, October 28.
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Eric