Barry Streek
The Pan South African Language Board has accused state railway company Spoornet of acting unconstitutionally and unlawfully in banning the use of Afrikaans in the work place.
In an unprecedented ruling, the board, which was appointed under the 1994 Constitution, says no institution is “allowed to restrict the use of a language between users of the same language”.
The ruling, which has been published in the Government Gazette, will have far- reaching implications for Afrikaans- speakers in the public sector and the right to use other official languages, apart from English.
The case was prompted by Spoornet’s order employee L Rautenbach to communicate in English with private Afrikaans firms and Afrikaans-speaking people at its central office. Rautenbach claimed he suffered mentally and physically as a result of Spoornet’s effort to restrict his use of his mother tongue.
The board said the Spoornet order was “unconstitutional and violated the language rights of the complainant”. It said Afrikaans-speaking employees were entitled to use their language in their dealings with private Afrikaans firms, and with Afrikaans speakers at Spoornet central office or any other institution.
The board also ruled that the onus rests on the employer(s) to arrange for translation or interpreting of the communications between employees “if the language policy requires the use of a different language with regard to external communication”.
Rautenbach submitted a complaint to the board after he was ordered to use English for internal and external communication and to use English when communicating with private Afrikaans firms and “Afrikaans- speaking contact personnel at English firms”.