The question is on language, and I think all of us will agree that language can be seen as a vessel in which a society tends to store its memories, its experiences and its history. If you allow that language to disappear, those memories and those experiences - also the type that the President was relating during his response to the debate on the state of the nation address - can disappear and become inaccessible. So language is very important.
The equal promotion of all our languages in South Africa remains a critical part of our nation-building effort. This is entrenched in our Constitution. Cabinet approved the National Language Policy Framework in February 2003. This framework aims to promote the equitable use of all of our 11 languages - the official languages.
This enables the citizens of our country to access government, to be able to interact with government, to get information from government and, indeed, also to get services from government.
Currently government is implementing the Use of Official Languages Act of 2012, as a means of promoting the previously marginalised languages and multilingualism, as well as to foster the equitable treatment of all 11 of our official languages. This Act requires that by May this year, every national department in our government, public entity and public enterprise must have adopted a language policy. It also provides for the establishment of a national language unit in each of these public institutions.
It is hoped that this approach will be emulated by the private sector and, indeed, other organisations. I believe that it is in the best interests of the private sector, acting through the companies, to embrace multilingualism.
These companies typically have a diverse workforce and also have a diverse customer base. Their supply chain is also made up of diverse people who speak various languages. One hopes that the private sector will also be able to do what government is doing to promote the use of as many of our languages as possible. This is a task that needs to be taken up by all of us, as South Africans, in all our institutions. Thank you.
I thank the Deputy President for his answer.
In terms of training, what is government going to do to train the African language teachers and better resource the African Language departments at universities? Linked to that is the question of the promotion of sign language as well as the Khoi and San languages. Thank you.
We have promulgated quite a number of Acts that deal with language. One of those is the Use of Official Languages Act, and a number of other instruments.
What I do know is that the use of various languages is now being promoted actively in our educational institutions, and the Minister of Higher Education is on record as saying that at the higher educational levels we want to be promoting more and more, even in our universities and technical and vocational education and training, TVET colleges, the use of the various languages that are used in our country.
Therefore training is going to become an important component that follows that, because with the focus that we are now beginning to place on this, training has to follow and I am confident that that training is going to continue happening.
The Constitution of our country enjoins us all not only to use the various languages, but to promote their usage and, indeed, sign language also falls in that category because it is also mentioned in our Constitution. So the use, not only of the official languages, but also the various other languages that are used by South Africans, has to be promoted.
We would like to see them being used more and more and as part of this process, we would like to see people being trained in the use of this language.
The association that has been formed is called the SA Language Practitioners' Council. One of its aims is to regulate the language profession, and through this association I'm sure that quite a lot of training will also take place.
Hon Speaker, I thank the Deputy President for the answer.
I totally agree with what the Deputy President has said, but our experience is really exactly the opposite, and what he said here remains theory in government. This House has adopted the language Bill and has debated it, and now it must be implemented.
The feedback from government is that they are not serious about implementing the requirements of the Bill. The Deputy President might know that the implementation already had to be postponed once because departments could not reach their deadlines.
If they don't move very quickly, they're going to miss the deadlines again in May. So my question is: What will the Deputy President do to put pressure on the Cabinet Ministers and departments to avoid another postponement?
We are worried about going through that again, as well as another court case, because that is the only to force them to implement the Bill. Thank you.
Ek is baie bly dat agb Mulder met my saamstem. Ek is baie bly. Wat gaan ons nou doen? [I am very glad that the hon Mulder agrees with me. I am very glad. What are we going to do now?]
Obviously, we are going to follow up on this matter ...
Ons sal daarmee voortgaan en sorg dat dit mooi hanteer word. [We will carry on with it and make sure that it is handled properly.]
It must be followed up properly and I'm glad that you have raised this. We have passed a law and it needs to be implemented. If there are any blockages, they need to be removed. It's a matter that can be given attention to. I'm glad you're raising it here because we need to implement the laws that we have passed. Thank you very much for being so constructive and raising it in the manner that you have. Thank you.
Chair, I am putting the question. My question has three parts: Firstly, PanSALB was allocated R78 180 000 between 2013 and 2014. Could you please indicate what it has done to promote indigenous languages.
Secondly, wouldn't you agree that the inclusion of Die Stem van Suid-Afrika in the national anthem to supplement Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika of Enoch Sontonga is actually an indication that indigenous African languages in and of themselves are not adequate to represent the national imagination inclusive of everyone?
Lastly, at this stage, shouldn't we already have instituted in the Constitution the Khoisan language as an official language of South Africa? Thank you very much.
Hon Ndlozi, the issue of the Pan South African Language Board, PanSALB, and the R78 million is a matter that I don't have any knowledge about right now. I'm willing to gather the information and I'm willing to write to you and give you some information on what has happened.
In relation to the programmes of PanSALB and what they have done with the money, I'm quite certain that they have used the money in one way or another to promote their programmes. [Laughter.] You seem to be quite knowledgeable on some of their programmes - some of their programmes will be to promote indigenous languages and I am sure they would have used their money to do so.
I am actually quite surprised to hear you say that the insertion of Die Stem in our national anthem was meant to replace Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika, as composed by Sontonga. Maybe I did not hear you correctly, but whatever it is, the crafting of our national anthem was an outstanding effort at nation- building.
When our flag was crafted, that was nation-building; when our national anthem was put together - and let me say that it was put together by a plethora of people, South Africans, united in their desire to rebuild their country from the ashes of apartheid - we all decided that we should compose a national anthem that would unite all of us. Today we have that national anthem. [Applause.]
Let me say that whatever doubts you may have, that national anthem, which includes Die Stem, which includes Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika, has served to unite us as a nation. Beyond that we have also done a number of other things that are of a nation-building nature.
I would like you to accept that these things have been aimed at one thing and one thing only: to unite South Africa as a nation and to unite all our people so that they can derive a great deal of pride from their South Africanness.
You would also have seen this in the crafting of our coat of arms. Our coat of arms has been crafted in a way that represents our origins as a nation.
This takes me back to the question that you asked about the Khoi language. The Khoi language is clearly addressed in our Constitution. In fact, if you read our Constitution carefully you will see it says that we should be seeking to promote the usage - and that also means the development - of those languages that are used by South Africans so that those languages are never ignored and or relegated to the background.
The Khoi language is one of those languages that has to be promoted and a number of South Africans in our own country speak the Khoi language; and many of us, as we do our political work, interact with them on an ongoing basis and we get a full sense of how they feel about their language and how they would like us all to join them in promoting their language so that it becomes well developed and becomes a written language.
I think we should all join hands to promote other languages, and as they get promoted and as we get to speak those languages the better a nation we will be. Hon Ndlozi, our task here is to build a nation and these are some of the things that we build a nation with. [Applause.]
Hon speaker, while we do compliment the government's intentions and efforts to promote our languages and cultures, there are members of the public who still come across officials in government offices who refuse to address them in any other language but their own.
The question is: What is the government doing about such tribalistic attitudes; and secondly, what relief is available to members of the public who are confronted with these tribalistic attitudes? Thank you.
Tribalism, racism and sexism are some of those deviant practices that our Constitution has a clear position on and we all, as a nation, should be completely opposed to those practices. Being opposed to that should also mean that whenever we encounter racism or tribalism we must stand up and speak out against it.
When we finalised our Constitution it ended with 11 languages. Let me go back a little. When we were negotiating our Constitution, I recall an occasion when I sat down with Roelf Meyer and we were talking about the final languages of our country.
He sort of casually said that, of course, it had to be English and Afrikaans, and I asked him what about the other languages? His answer was that maybe it could be English, Afrikaans and IsiZulu.
I asked him about all the others because we speak 11 languages in this country, and in the end the languages that will be enshrined in our Constitution have to be languages that unite all our people. That is how we finally came up with 11 official languages for our country.
We have the languages that in the past were marginalised, disregarded and put in the dustbin. Today all of our 11 languages are on an equal footing and they should have equal recognition.
There will be occasions when we encounter people who prefer to be spoken to or address others only in one language or another. Our Constitution and the precedents that have been set in our various courts tell us that you are allowed to address whoever is an official or in authority in the language of your choice. So if you are listening, which you are not doing at the moment, I would say to you that whenever anyone of our people has to get a service from any government department they are entitled to speak in the language that they are most proficient in.
That should not be seen as being tribalism or anything else like that. Tribalism is something that we should banish completely from the face of South Africa and never see again in this country. Thank you.
Hon Chairperson, on a point of order: With your guidance, Chairperson, what happens when the response from the people to whom we are putting a question is outside the scope of or does not address the question that was asked, maybe because they did not understand it or for other reasons? What do you do?
The Deputy President admitted that he did not understand me, but went on to speak and did not answer my question. I asked why the languages of the Khoi and the San people are not official languages, why they are not part of the 11 languages, and not why they are not promoted.
Hon Ndlozi, thank you very much for your point of order. The Deputy President has answered the question. As you say, it may not be in the manner in which you intended the question to be answered.
My submission to you would be that you can follow up with a written question to the Deputy President, maybe to clarify further what you meant about the question or rather in the question that you were asking. For now we have concluded questions to the Deputy President. Thank you very much, Deputy President.