By Nomfundo Manyathi
The Minister of Arts and Culture, Paul Mashatile, recently held a press briefing in Pretoria to discuss the draft Languages Bill (23 of 2011), which is currently before parliament. He said that the Bill aimed to elevate the status of indigenous languages.
Minister Mashatile said that the Bill was also a response to the provisions of s 6 of the Constitution, which oblige the state to ‘take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of [indigenous] languages’.
Section 6 also provides that each province must use at least two of the 11 official languages. The Minister said that there was a need to introduce the Bill in order to promote all the languages in South Africa, including sign language, adding that although sign language was not one of the official languages, government should use it to communicate with the public.
Minister Mashatile said that in 2003 government drafted the South African Languages Bill, which was presented to cabinet in 2007, but was not approved. It was referred back to the department for fine-tuning.
Minister Mashatile said that the draft Bill, which his department was currently holding public hearings on, was drafted to meet the obligations of s 6 to regulate government’s use of official languages.
Minister Mashatile said that one of the concerns arising from the public submissions made to date was that the Bill in its current form was not fully compliant with s 6 of the Constitution. It was suggested that the Bill should state that its objective was to promote multilingualism.
The public also suggested that the Bill must require government to use at least three official languages, one of which must be an indigenous language, as the use of at least two languages ‘effectively promoted the use of only English and Afrikaans’.
Another concern raised was that the compliance procedures of the Act were weak and needed to be strengthened. It was recommended that an ombudsman and a Language Tribunal be established. It was also suggested that the Minister should appoint a task team to assist with ensuring compliance with the Act once enacted.
Minister Mashatile said that a language could easily disappear if it was not taught, adding that his department would have a look at the concerns raised and would ensure that the Bill takes the recommendations into account.
Nomfundo Manyathi, nomfundo@derebus.org.za
This article was first published in De Rebus in 2012 (March) DR 8.
