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<h1 class="gmail-bold">Adding bite to bark</h1>
<span id="gmail-spnDate" class="gmail-block gmail-datestamp">2017-02-19 06:10</span>
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<p class="gmail-left"> Mmanaledi Mataboge-Mashetla</p>
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<img id="gmail-image" title="SPEAK UP: Professor Edith Kirk, Dr Rakwena Monareng and Dr William Langeveldt. (Picture supplied)" src="http://cdn.24.co.za/files/Cms/General/d/4994/cc7658e998294c27b4a564b029b67f9a.jpg" alt="SPEAK UP: Professor Edith Kirk, Dr Rakwena Monareng and Dr William Langeveldt. (Picture supplied)">
<p class="gmail-text">SPEAK UP: Professor Edith Kirk, Dr Rakwena Monareng and Dr William Langeveldt. (Picture supplied)</p>
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<div class="gmail-left"><h5 id="gmail-Relatedheader" class="gmail-bold">Related Links</h5></div>
<ul><li class="gmail-bold"><a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/the-keepers-of-language-20170211">The keepers of language</a></li><li class="gmail-bold"><a href="http://city-press.news24.com/Voices/language-matters-20160827">Language matters</a></li><li class="gmail-bold"><a href="http://city-press.news24.com/News/schools-take-education-mec-to-court-20170111">Schools take Education MEC to court</a></li></ul>
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<p>Mmanaledi Mataboge-Mashetla</p><p>The
Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) will have to work much
harder to get the priority attention of many government departments. And
the board is planning to do just that.<br></p><p>PanSALB will take
legal action against government departments that either turned down the
board’s invitation to account for their use of African languages or
ignored the communiqué from the Constitutionally created institution. </p><p>Some simply did not show up when they were supposed to. </p><p>“We
can take them to court... We have discussed with our legal team to
start drafting letters notifying them about the steps we intend taking,”
said PanSALB chief executive officer Dr Rakwena Mpho Monareng.</p><p>Several
government departments chose other engagements instead of attending
public hearings meant to hold them accountable for language policies and
adhering to the Constitution’s requirement to promote multilingualism
in their work. </p><p>The continuing public hearings have been organised
by PanSALB as part of its language activism month events held at the
CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria. </p><p><strong>Tough talk on language policy</strong></p><p>PanSALB
is mandated to promote multilingualism and language rights, as well as
to investigate rights violations. The institution has often been
labelled a “toothless watchdog” whose powers are nothing but ink on
paper. This is about to come to an end, said the tough-talking Monareng
this week. </p><p>“The moment we take someone to task, that’s when they
will start seeing the seriousness of this. The thing is, they think this
is the old PanSALB that allowed them to get away with a lot.” </p><p>At
the beginning of the hearings, 12 out of 30 government departments had
not confirmed their participation, with several out of these making it
clear to PanSALB that they would not show up. </p><p>The department of
basic education is having “a hectic schedule” that involves visiting
schools in different provinces, sorting out problems related to the
placement of learners in schools and appearing before Parliament’s
portfolio committee, said its spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga. </p><p>“I
don’t think it’s anything else,” Mhlanga said. “We, of all departments,
have a lot to say about languages. We would be willing to take up the
invitation to share the progress that we have made in terms of
implementing the use of African languages,” he said. </p><p>He added
that the department was “not refusing” to appear before PanSALB, but
would have liked to “negotiate an alternative date”.</p><p>And then
there’s National Treasury, which said the timing was just too wrong as
the department is preparing for Minister Pravin Gordhan’s annual budget
speech. The date that PanSALB allocated the department “is the date we
are on printing deadline. If we miss the printing deadline there won’t
be a budget,” said National Treasury spokesperson Yolisa Tyantsi. </p><p>“In
the last week towards the budget, we don’t do any external engagements.
The only thing that can take the minister out of the office is if the
president wants to see him or if it’s something related to the budget,”
she said. </p><p>Tyantsi added that National Treasury does not undermine
PanSALB and it is proving that by deciding to rather not honour this
particular invitation instead of sending any other official who may be
unable to account on the department’s behalf. </p><p>“The fact that we
value the PanSALB is the reason we are not sending a junior official. To
show that we are serious about this multilingualism requirement, we
have translated rating agencies’ reports into African languages and we
are also translating the People’s Guide to the budget into these
languages. We do recognise that we’ve got a policy to respect,” she
said. </p><p><strong>Department responses speak volumes</strong></p><p>While
some government departments sent an apology to PanSALB a few days
before their scheduled appearance, others simply did not bother
responding to the board’s emails and calls. </p><p>“Some gave silly
reasons for not coming,” said CEO Monareng. For those that made time,
the board expressed appreciation for their efforts, but were grieved by
the fact that “the content is very poor. They sent very junior people
who cannot explain things; they cannot account for the departments.”</p><p>In
addition to this, several government departments “don’t have their own
language policies. They took the policy that they got from the
department of arts and culture and just changed names. Where it says the
arts and culture they put their own department’s name,” said Monareng. </p><p>While
spokesperson for the department of planning, monitoring and evaluation
Tshegofatso Modubu claimed that they did not receive a PanSALB
invitation, some, such as the State Security Agency, international
relations and cooperation, and social development, did not respond to
City Press’ enquiry. </p><p>At the time of going to print, other
departments that had not confirmed their participation, such as small
business development, home affairs and public service and
administration, had assured PanSALB that they would send
representatives.</p><p><em>A Project with PanSALB: </em></p><p><em>How official are our official languages?</em></p><p><em>Join
the City Press newsroom as we live tweet this debate - in the mother
tongues of our journalists - from the Sandton Convention Centre from
07:00 on Tuesday. Join the conversation. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/City_Press">@City_Press</a> and #SpeakItLiveIt</em></p><p><a href="http://www.news24.com/Opinions/Voices/adding-bite-to-bark-20170219-2">http://www.news24.com/Opinions/Voices/adding-bite-to-bark-20170219-2</a><br><em></em></p><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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