Pointing out that Thursday February 21 is International Mother Language Day, the president of the African National Congress (ANC), Jacob Zuma, has called for the new schools’ pledge drawn up by the Department of Education to be recited in the different languages of the country — depending on the region.
Writing in the online newsletter ANC Today, Zuma said on Friday that the country’s print media, too, should ideally be available in more languages, not just English and Afrikaans.
“It is a pity that a newspaper such as Imvo Zabantsundu was closed down,” he said. “Other than its rich history, it would be playing a critical role of promoting mainstream reading and interaction in the isiXhosa language.
“KwaZulu-Natal appears to be the only province with a flourishing mother-tongue media, with successful commercial titles such as UMAFRIKA, Ilanga and Isolezwe, as well as several community papers in isiZulu.”
He said the formula needed to be copied in other provinces. “Here is a challenge to our current and budding media owners!” he said. “The market clearly exists, given the success of the existing publications.”
Noting that this year’s celebration of language day is special because the United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages, under the theme “Languages Matter!”, Zuma urged a renewed effort at all levels to promote multilingualism and the development of all official languages, including the South African sign language and the languages referred to in the Constitution.
In addition to the 11 official languages, the Constitution seeks the development of the Khoi, Nama and San languages, and sign language. It wants to promote and ensure respect for all languages commonly used by communities in South Africa, including German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu, as well as languages used for religious purposes such as Arabic, Hebrew and Sanskrit. It does not mention Latin in this context.
The ANC president said that the government or Parliament should promote the right to diversity. The Cabinet recently instructed all government departments to establish language units, so that information they produce can be made available to citizens in their mother tongues.
“We trust that departments are taking this executive directive seriously,” Zuma said. “Mass communication that is not done in all 11 languages cannot serve the purpose of adequately communicating to all South Africans.” — I-Net Bridge