South Africa: English alone isn't SA's mother tongue

Francis Hult francis.hult at UTSA.EDU
Thu Feb 21 16:14:53 UTC 2008


iAfrica.com

 

English alone isn't SA's mother tongue

 

The FW de Klerk Foundation is protesting that government is not fulfilling its constitutional obligation to respect mother tongue rights of the great majority of South Africans - "to the detriment of our national goal to respect our linguistic and cultural diversity". 

[...]

 

Pointing out that Thursday is International Mother Language Day, the foundation suggests that the country is not recognising these constitutional language rights. It said that English has become the de facto single official language of the national government, despite the requirement that it must use two official languages. 

 

"The 10 official indigenous languages clearly do not, in practice, enjoy parity of esteem with English and are not treated equitably," the foundation said.

 

Full story:

http://iafrica.com/news/sa/949786.htm

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