PanSALB to release comprehensive report on the use of official languages Act 12 of 2012
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) recognises the historically diminished use and status of the nine marginalized South African indigenous official languages: Sesotho sa Leboa - Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. There is an obligation on the state to take practical and positive measures to elevate the status, and advance the use of, these languages (section 6(2)(3)).
Considering these obligations and also that the Use of Official Languages Act (Act No. 12 of 2012) (UOLA) in essence fosters multilingualism within working spaces and beyond, in the spirit of social cohesion and nation building, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) in pursuance of its mandate in 2017 invited all national government departments of the Republic of South Africa, including the Office of the Presidency, as anchors of service delivery to all South African communities to give account of their observance of the constitutional language requirement and chiefly the prescripts of UOLA since its inception in 2013.
During the process, it was established that most National Department and Entities do not: comply with the act; take the execution of our (PanSALB) language mandate seriously; and that they ignore our mandatory responsibility to monitor their compliance to the Use of Official Language Act. Resultantly, we have taken the strides to expose the compliance and non-compliance record of this sector to South African Language Users and National Parliament for due recourse.
Members of the media are invited to attend this session which will be taking place as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Time: 9h00
Venue: GCIS, Tshedimosetso House, Cnr Francis Baard & Festival streets, Hatfield, Pretoria
NB! There will be a video link to Imbizo Media Centre, 120 Plein Street, Parliament, Cape Town
RSVP: siphiwe@pansalb.org
Enquiries:
Siphiwe Mabasa
Cell: 071 384 5361
