Languages of South Africa - Constitutional Provisions

Constitutional Provisions

Chapter 1 (Founding Provisions), Section 6 (Languages) of the Constitution of South Africa is the basis for government language policy. The English text of the constitution signed by president Nelson Mandela on 16 December 1996 curiously contains the names of the languages in the language itself rather than English. Controversy surrounds the use of Sepedi as opposed to Sesotho sa Leboa (which was the wording in the 1994 interim constitution) in the text. The spelling of Venda is also incorrectly rendered as Tshivenda instead of the correct Tshivenḓa: The constitution mentions "sign language" in the generic sense rather than, as is widely believed, South African Sign Language specifically.

“
  1. The official languages of the Republic are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
  2. Recognising the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous languages of our people, the state must take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages.
  3. (a) The national government and provincial governments may use any particular official languages for the purposes of government, taking into account usage, practicality, expense, regional circumstances and the balance of the needs and preferences of the population as a whole or in the province concerned; but the national government and each provincial government must use at least two official languages.
    (b) Municipalities must take into account the language usage and preferences of their residents.
  4. The national government and provincial governments, by legislative and other measures, must regulate and monitor their use of official languages. Without detracting from the provisions of subsection (2), all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably.
  5. A Pan South African Language Board established by national legislation must
    (a) promote, and create conditions for, the development and use of -
    (i) all official languages;
    (ii) the Khoi, Nama and San languages; and
    (iii) sign language; and
    (b) promote and ensure respect for -
    (i) all languages commonly used by communities in South Africa, including German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu; and
    (ii) Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and other languages used for religious purposes in South Africa.
 ”

—"Constitution of the Republic of South Africa". Cape Town: Government of South Africa. 1996-12-18. http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/a108-96.pdf. Retrieved 1 December 2009.

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