SIGN LANGUAGE ACT WELCOMED
2023-07-26
On Wednesday 19 July, President Ramaphosa signed the South African Sign Language Act into law, a welcome step “to promote the rights of persons who are deaf and hard of hearing”.
On Wednesday 19 July, President Ramaphosa signed the South African Sign Language Act into law, a welcome step “to promote the rights of persons who are deaf and hard of hearing”.
2019 Annual Report Card on Cultural, Religious and Language Rights Introduction For centuries the central theme of South Africa’s history has been interaction
While public hearings on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill continue nationally, it is no surprise that the majority of the comments received have voiced strong opposition to it.
In his recent articles on the Constitution, Prof Koos Malan expresses the view that those of us who supported the constitutional transformation of South Africa between 1989 and 1996 were motivated by some kind of liberal-religious delusion. Dave Steward, Chairman of the FW de Klerk Foundation, responds.
REPORT CARD ON CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND LANGUAGE RIGHTS Introduction The Constitutional Negotiations The Report Card on Cultural, Religious and
Celebrated annually on 24 September since 1994, Heritage Day recognises and celebrates the diversity of South Africa’s ‘Rainbow Nation’. Our Constitution assures South Africans’ rights
Judge Jody Kollapen is one of eight candidates who are being interviewed this week by the Judicial Service Commission to fill two vacancies on the Constitutional Court. In the course of his interview he is reported to have said that “in the transition to democracy, South Africans had perhaps focused too much on reconciliation and not enough on transformation.” He added that “reconciliation could not be achieved without transformation – without all South Africans accessing the economy.”
This Heritage Day we are slowly emerging from the most immediate aftermath of Covid-19 and its devastating effect on our country, economy and people.
On this day -and in a country belonging to all its’ people – South Africans are encouraged to celebrate their culture, the diversity of their beliefs and traditions.
One of the most important aspects recognised in the Constitution of South Africa, is the importance of our collective heritage and the rich cultural, linguistic and historical landscape painting the canvas of our people’s diversity. The South African Constitution unambiguously speaks to this in its’ preamble: South Africa belongs to all who live in it – united in our diversity – in the wider context of a nation and country recognising the injustices of our past; honouring those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land as well as respecting those who have worked to build and develop our country.
In his dystopian novel “1984” George Orwell introduced us to the concept of “doublethink” – which he described as –
“…the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary.”
We saw examples of doublethink in President Ramaphosa’s statement on Heritage Day last week.