One of Europe’s biggest short-haul airlines is imposing new rules on South African nationals that have drawn condemnation. The BBC reports that Dublin-based carrier – RyanAir – says South African customers will have to take an Afrikaans test to prove their nationality before boarding flights. The carrier said the rules were meant to deal with the “high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports”, according to a company spokesperson quoted by British media. The chief executive officer of the Afrikaans Language Board, Conrad Steenkamp, has described the move as “absurd”, and that he doesn’t understand why RyanAir singled out Afrikaans, as the country has 11 official languages.
