By Daniela Ellerbeck and Alfred Mahkuntsu on behalf of the FW de Klerk Foundation on 11/10/2024

*This article was first published as an opinion piece in News24 on 24 September 2024.

Introduction:

South Africans are celebrating National Heritage Month this September. The Constitution enshrines various cultural, religious and linguistic rights, all of which are important to protect one of our nation’s primary treasures – our diversity. One of the main facets of South Africa’s diversity is its indigenous languages. This is not just a point of pride, but a living, breathing testament to the cultures and histories that shaped this nation. Our languages are carriers of identity, tradition and history. Heritage Month provides us with an opportunity to celebrate our linguistic diversity and reflect on the positive and negative developments in preserving our rich linguistic diversity.

Positive developments:

Education is one of the most important ways to preserve our indigenous languages. Research also shows that learners who are taught using their home language in the first six years of schooling fare better than those who are not.

It should, therefore, be of great concern to us that so many of our children do not receive the advantage of being educated in their mother-tongue. Especially, since section 29(2) of the Constitution says they have the right to it, even at public schools. One cannot help, but wonder how much of our poor reading ability can be attributed to this.

Thankfully, this seems to be something that the Department of Basic Education is addressing: As of 2022, 2015 schools in the Eastern Cape are participating in the Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education (MtbBE) pilot program, using isiXhosa and Sesotho as the languages of teaching and learning from Grade 1 through Grade 9. Learners in these schools are taught subjects such as mathematics, science and technology in their mother tongue.

The former Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, announced in June 2024 that the successful Eastern Cape MtbBE model would be expanded nationwide. The goal is for the 2025 learner cohort to complete their primary education in their mother tongue.

The Department is also currently partnering with organisations to promote literacy and multilingual education. New Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube, publicly emphasised the importance of increasing mother tongue education to improve educational outcomes for indigenous language-speaking students. She noted that a curriculum based on learners’ mother tongue is key to solving the poor literacy skills in schools where 81% of Grade 4 learners do not read with understanding. She highlighted plans to expand mother tongue education across the country by 2025, ensuring parity of esteem for African languages (school books written in indigenous languages go a long way in restoring the esteem of indigenous languages) and promoting multilingualism in line with the Constitution and Language in Education Policy, 1997 (“LiEP”).

SABC is also aiming to conduct a 24-hour news channel called Ekaya. Ekaya will showcase news and current affairs shows in all of South Africa’s indigenous languages. This initiative will not only allow millions of people to access news and shows in their mother tongue, but it will also simultaneously promote the use and development of indigenous languages in the media ecosystem (e.g. journalists, translators, news anchors etc), creating an entire economic value chain.

The Department of Higher Education and Training’s Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions, 2020 encourages universities to support multilingualism by promoting the use of indigenous languages in teaching and learning. With that being said, the Policy does not recognise Afrikaans as an indigenous language. This is concerning as Afrikaans-medium university-level education has almost been extinguished.

Negative Developments:

Despite the State being required to take practical and positive measures to elevate indigenous languages’ status and advance their use (section 6(2) of the Constitution), the following is concerning:

In the Executive we find the failure of the government to enforce the Use of Official Languages Act, 2012. This law binds all national departments, national public entities and national public enterprises and requires them to use three official languages for government purposes (section 4(2)(b) of the Act). This lack of enforcement has resulted in English increasingly being used as the dominant official language, while other official languages are not receiving equal attention.

In the Legislature, 2024 saw Members of Parliament (“MPs”) only being allowed to use English and Afrikaans during parliamentary proceedings. This was due to the lack of interpreting services.

Language issues also pose a formidable barrier to accessing rights as illustrated in S v Mtsholotsholo: Here, the admissibility of witness statements raised concerns about police officers’ translations from isiXhosa to English. The case underscores the need for accurate translation and interpretation in court proceedings, where English is the language of record, as disparities in language handling can impact the criminal justice process.

Lastly, there is a need to raise general awareness around the academic or commercial value of indigenous languages. This is seen in the Isiphethu Primary School case, the school excluded isiNdebele as a subject, because too few students enrolled for the subject. This illustrates the need to grow demand for indigenous languages as academic subjects, which without a doubt, is closely tied to the lack of viewing indigenous languages as advancing employability. (After being mandated by the National Language Body and the Gauteng Provincial Language Body to reinstate isiNdebele, the matter was resolved and a circular was sent out to parents to assure them that isiNdebele will be included in 2023 academic year.)

Conclusion:

The responsibility to keep our mother tongue languages alive is not just up to the government or in educational institutions. It’s something that all South Africans should take part in. This Heritage Month, let us not only celebrate our linguistic diversity, but also commit to actions that will ensure the survival of our mother-tongue languages. They are, after all, the living legacy of who we are as South Africans.