In a judgement hailed as a landmark by the Pan South African Language Board (Pansalb), the Pretoria High Court has ordered the Department of Labour’s Compensation Commissioner to change its policy of communicating only in English.
The court found the department and its commissioner in breach of the Pansalb Act and the Constitution. It ordered the commissioner to draft a new language policy and submit it to Pansalb — which brought the case — for approval.
The court order, issued on June 15, follows Pansalb’s attempts to engage with the Compensation Commissioner after complaints were received by the language board. ”Complaints were levelled by non-English speakers, particularly Afrikaans-speaking citizens, against the Compensation Commissioner over its policy of adopting English only as a language of communication,” said Pansalb CEO Cynthia Marivate.
Marivate says offers to help the Compensation Commissioner review its practice were rejected. ”The board specifically recommended that the Compensation Commissioner urgently reconsiders its practice, in view of the provisions of the Constitution, and also made an offer to make its resources available to the Compensation Commissioner to assist in this regard,” says Marivate.
She says Pansalb offered guidelines on the way to devise a flexible language policy. In addition, ”we have a network of translators in all official languages. They would help translate, proof-read and check the documents [so] that whoever needs [is] able to read it in his [or her] own language.” But ”our mediation attempts were ignored to an extent where we had to take them to court”.
In October 2002 a hearing conducted by the language board ruled that the Compensation Commissioner draft a compliant language policy within six months. A year and a half later, the language policy had not been drafted. ”While Pansalb was loath to involve itself in legal battles against other organs of state, the complaints at hand addressed the language rights of members of society that are constitutionally enshrined and Pansalb is mandated to uphold and protect.”
The court ordered that:
Within 60 days, the Compensation Commissioner and Department of Labour must keep forms in all official languages;
They must indicate on these forms that forms are available in other official languages;
They must train personnel to serve the public in official languages other than English;
Their language policy and practice must be aligned with the requirements of the Constitution, in consultation with the language board; and
They must draft a language policy to adequately serve the needs of the speech communities they serve and submit the policy to Pansalb for scrutiny.
Costs were awarded against the department and the commissioner.
Senior Pansalb legal adviser Edward Sambo says that although the Constitution demands that all government departments use at least two official languages, there is a move by these departments to monolingualism. ”This court ruling sends a signal to other government departments that multilingualism is a reality and that the courts will not hesitate to rule against them should they opt for English only as their official language. It also sends a signal that there is room for all other official languages to be used in all other public domains, particularly where service delivery is concerned.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Labour, Monwabisi Maclean, says the department is still studying the outcome of the court case and is determined to abide by the Constitution. ”As a department we are totally committed to the constitutional rights of individual South African citizens when it comes to the 11 official languages,” he says.
Maclean says the Department of Labour is already serving people in various official languages. ”It has always depended on requirements by different provinces.” He says of the court case’s outcome: ”We are going to engage and come with a detailed plan in terms of addressing these issues.”