P Jordan: Promotion of African languages

21 June 2006

At no time in the history of African languages has the government done so
much in such a short space of time to promote their use in the mainstream. It
cannot be true that government communication strategies continue to “wink in
the dark” so to speak, because my pronouncements as the Minister of Arts and
Culture about what my Department has planned to promote African languages is a
revolution that was televised live, albeit it was only on the parliamentary
channel.

The Department of Arts and Culture is fully aware of the centrality of the
language issue in the revolutionary explosions of 16 June 1976. In fact this
awareness is what has resulted in my putting R1 billion where my mouth is. In
February this year following the President State of the Nation address, I
announced plans to invest this huge sum in libraries throughout the country.
The thrust of this project is to cultivate a culture of reading and writing
among all South Africans.

Of course this programme entails not only writing, publishing and
translation in African languages but will build new infrastructure and thus
contribute to fighting poverty, creating jobs, transforming the language sector
while creating economic opportunities through the promotion of African
languages.

This is a result of acknowledgement of a poor reading culture and the
unavailability of literature written in indigenous languages that has inspired
my Department to put in place a plan to mainstream language equity, especially
the African languages.

In the recent past there seems to be more voices that insinuate that not
enough is being done to promote the African languages. There is an obvious need
to place on record what government has been doing.

The Department of Arts and Culture has had me as a full Minister only for
the last two years and I have taken the promotion and preservation of African
language as a personal mission virtually from day one. For the most part, it is
not that government continues to “wink in the dark” where it is only its
officials who know and understand what the programme of action is until
2014.

In fact I announced plans for the next three years last February. They
underscore a bigger and more meaningful role in the mainstream for African
languages.

The programme of action entails the following pivotal projects:
* The establishment of nine Language Research and Development Centres for
African languages. The purpose is to decentralise language development and
locate it close to communities that speak those languages.

* The South African Language Practitioners Bill to regulate and
professionalise language work.

* The National Language Policy Framework (NLPF) of 2003 to regulate the use
of all official languages in government institutions and to promote
multilingualism.

* The establishment of the National Language Forum (NLF) across all three
tiers of government to bring together language workers within government.

* The Department of Arts and Culture’s national language services which
continues to offer translation and editing services to all national government
departments.

* The establishment of the Human Language Technologies Unit (HLTU) within
the Department to facilitate communications between citizens and information
systems in people’s own languages. This will entail the co-ordination,
development and production of technical vocabularies (terminologies) by the
Department to promote the use of all official languages in the all the fields
and domains of study including mathematics, science and technology. During 2005
the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) launched nine of these at a ceremony
in Boksburg.

* For this 2006/07 financial year my Department has allocated R70 million to
language programmes and activities to promote linguistic diversity. R39,9
million will go to the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB).

* R30 million will be spent on the Telephone Interpreting Services (TISSA)
which will create employment in interpretation and call centre management.
Essentially, TISSA aims to make it easier for all citizens to be served in
their own languages.

* My departmental budget has invested some money to affirm and encourage the
publishing house, “realities” to address the dearth of literature in African
languages. That Cape Town based company has already published two titles in
Xhosa, including Sindiwe Magona’s “Kubantwana baba Ntwana bam,” three more
title are in the pipeline for production this year.

It can thus be said those 30 years after 16 June 1976 student upheavals
changed the course of history, indigenous African languages are once more
coming into their own in an unprecedented African Renaissance. The youngest
department in President Thabo Mbeki’s government has put into place levers of
power not only to transform the language sector but to make sure that for the
first time African languages will be equal in the true sense of the word.

It is now up to African mother tongue speakers themselves to be agents of
what they wish to happen to their languages, namely, that they take their
rightful place in mainstream society.

It is important to note that even after more than 27 years in exile, I am
intensely aware of the importance and relevance of African languages and speak
IsiXhosa as fluently as English.

What we do over the next 30 years will tell us if 16 June was worth the
sacrifice.

Issued by: Ministry of Arts and Culture
21 June 2006