JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Nelson Mandela said he “loved” Afrikaans, even though it was the language of the people who imprisoned him for 27 years during apartheid. One of the closest friends he made in prison on Robben Island was a white Afrikaans warder, who Mandela credited with improving his Afrikaans immensely. But now, on the eve of local government elections that threaten to further loosen the African National Congress’ nearly three-decade grip on South Africa, a leader of the ANC has demonized Afrikaans as the lingo of apartheid. Blade Nzimande, South Africa’s education minister, says Afrikaans is a “white, foreign, European language of privilege” that should no longer be used as a medium of instruction at South African universities. Nzimande banned its use at the state-funded University of South Africa (UNISA), but the country’s apex Constitutional Court recently ordered him to reinstate it by 2023, emphasizing that “references to Afrikaans as …