The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) welcomes the initiatives taken by one of South African’s biggest weekend paper, The Sunday Times to introduce isiZulu edition.
This announcement deserves praise and our support. This unyielding conviction about the importance of isiZulu adds to the efforts of liberating and developing our indigenous languages.
IsiZulu is one of the official languages of South Africa and 24 percent of South Africans consider isiZulu as their home language and 50 percent of the South Africa’s inhabitants understanding the language. We cannot argue against reality that languages are today disappearing faster than ever before in human history. A language is threatened if it has few users and a weak political status, and, especially, if children are no longer learning it, i.e. when the language is no longer transmitted to the next generation.
The death of a language is a significant loss because it implies a loss of inherited knowledge. Cultures are transmitted through languages and languages also reflect the history of the people who use them. Linguistic diversity is not less important than ecological diversity. This initiative by the Sunday Times will prevent that from happening.
This is why PanSALB is appreciative of this project that will help in the preservation and promotion of our indigenous languages. We hope that in future such efforts will be extended to other languages as well.
PanSALB believes that the idea will encourage other national media houses and other organisations to recognise the role of official languages in the country.
Enquiries:
Sibusiso Nkosi
Tel: 012 341 9638
Cell: 082 855 4436
