[lg policy] South Africa: Litigation on languages

[Harold Schiffman]

Litigation on languages

CANAAN MDLETSHE | 29 February, 2012 00:25

The Arts and Culture portfolio committee in parliament will meet today
to discuss public submissions on the controversial Languages Bill,
which if enacted would force government departments and other
organisations of national scope to use a minimum of three South
African languages. Despite threats of court action to halt the bill,
Pan South African Language Board chairman Sihawu Ngubane was confident
yesterday that the draft law would be approved next month.

He is already questioning the lack of punishments that could be
imposed on government departments that contravene the law.
"What concerns us is that this bill does not provide punishable
measures for those who do not conform to it, but we hope that such
provisions would be made," he said at an event to commemorate last
week's International Mother-Tongue Day. The Western Cape government,
which has a language policy, the DA and AfriForum are against the bill
and are considering legal action on the grounds that the proposed
legislation would marginalise Afrikaans.

If the bill is passed, government departments will have to choose
between English and Afrikaans to use alongside two indigenous
languages. Ngubane said the perception that the board was
anti-Afrikaans was false and that the bill was to ensure that South
Africans could communicate with the government, particularly on
service delivery, in a language that they understood.

"It's not true that we don't want Afrikaans, but all we say is that
vernacular languages must also be used as medium of instruction in
schools.

"In multiracial schools vernacular languages are given one period and
are taught by teachers who hardly speak proper indigenous languages
and that has to change," he said. He said South Africans should not be
forced to speak English when they approach government departments. "No
one can be arrested for speaking their own language. For far too long,
we have been advocating for indigenous languages to be treated equally
to other languages like English and Afrikaans.

"In this country, 87.3% of people speak indigenous languages but these
people are forced to speak English, even if they don't want to or have
to."  KwaZulu-Natal arts, culture, sports and recreation MEC
Ntombikayise Sibhidla-Saphetha said the language policy in
KwaZulu-Natal acknowledged Zulu, Xhosa, English and Afrikaans as
official languages.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/2012/02/29/litigation-on-languages

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