BY MR MXOLISI ZWANE
Chief Executive Officer
CONTENT
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Background
•
Introduction
•
Legislative Imperatives
•
Legislative advantages and Disadvantages
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Governance Structure
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Operational Capability
•
•
Language Services
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Linguistic Human Rights
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Monitoring and Evaluation
Lessons Learnt
PREAMBLE
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South Africa with its historical legacy of apartheid recognised only two languages i.e. English and Afrikaans;
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The issue of language has always reflected largely in the struggle for liberation. The 1976 uprising were largely
driven by the revolt of students against the use of Afrikaans in the schooling system;
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These two languages were promoted at the detriment of a number of widely used languages in South Africa.
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It is no wonder then that the language rights were enshrined in the constitution that was adopted in 1996.
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The democratically elected government also moved fast to form PanSALB as one of the constitutional
organisations;
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South Africa has eleven official languages which represent most communities with the exception of Khoi, San,
Nama and Sign Language which it faces extinction.
•
With the above mentioned background, sadly the previously marginalised languages continue to experience
under development.
•
It is with the above mentioned information that PanSALB’s focus is biased towards promoting, protecting and
preserving the previously marginalised languages.
BACKGROUND
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The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) was established in 1995 by the
enactment of PanSALB Act of 1995 as amended in 1999.
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As a language constitutional entity its objective is to protect, enforce, promote and
further the development of all official languages in South Africa with specific emphasis
on previously maginalised languages.
•
PanSALB is further charged with the responsibility over the development and use of
Khoi, San and Nama as well as South African Sign Language.
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PanSALB seeks to protect the rights of all languages commonly used in South Africa as
enshrined in section 6 of the South African Constitution.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
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Democratically elected Government was put in place for the first time in
1994.
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New Democratic Constitution was adopted in 1996.
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English and Afrikaans were retained as official languages.
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Additional 9 indigenous languages were adopted as official languages.
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Previously marginalised languages are to be developed, respected and
promoted.
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Multilingualism is to be promoted.
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Other languages spoken and used for religious purposes are to be
developed.
INTRODUCTION
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act No. 108 of 1996 Section
6 (5) (a) and (b) and No. 29 of 1999 mandates the establishment of the Pan
South African Language Board (PanSALB) as follows:
•
•
Promote and create conditions for, the development and use of ;
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All official languages,
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The Khoi, Nama and San languages, and
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Sign language
Promote and ensure respect for;
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All official languages,
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Arabic, Hebrew, Gujarati, Hindi, Sanskrit, German , Greek, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu, Urdu,
and other languages used for religious purposes in South Africa.
LEGISLATIVE IMPERATIVES
The protection and preservation of Languages is informed by the following
Legislation;
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Constitution of the Republic of 1996
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Pan South African Language Act of 1995 amended in 1999
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Language Policy Framework for Higher Education of 2001
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Language Policy for Higher Education of 2002
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Use of Official Languages Act of 2012
LEGISLATIVE ADVANTAGES AND
LIMITATIONS
Advantages:
Limitations:
• Lack of provisions of the Act that give the decisions of the Tribunal
binding powers
GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE
The PanSALB Act prescribes that a Board be appointed to oversee the functioning of the
organisation. The Board is empowered to appoint sub committees and structures that will
contribute to the fulfillment of the PanSALB mandate.
The diagram on the next slide depicts this:
GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE
(Cont.)
OPERATIONAL CAPABILITY
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At an operational level PanSALB is led by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who is supported by the 5
executives based at head office and 3 regional executives responsible for a total of 9 provinces.
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The Head Office is responsible for :
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provision of research services, development of all language content, management of the language
violation processes, monitoring the implementation of all language programmes, evaluation of the
impact of language interventions and provision of corporate support.
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The provincial operations are responsible for :
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promotion and ensuring usage of all language programmes and interventions developed at Head Office
including monitoring and language violation related interventions. Another important aspect of the role
of the Provincial operations is assisting the CEO with stakeholder management and provincial
parliamentary liaison.
LANGUAGE SERVICES
Role and Objectives of the Unit:
Develop language products and services that create a conducive environment for
languages. Development is undertaken through structures that are coordinated
by Programme Managers and Organisational Technical Experts focusing on
specialised technical fields. programme coordination by manager for PanSALB
structures with a provision of technical support, which is a specialist area within
the languages division.
LANGUAGE SERVICES (Cont.1)
These are the Support of PanSALB Structures:
•
NLUs The National Language Units are responsible for production of dictionaries and
structured along language lines. They are stationed in the Universities are involved in
production of monolingual, bilingual and trilingual dictionaries.
•
NLBs The National Language Bodies
are responsible for quality control of language
products. Their function is to authenticate, verify and to standardize language content.
The NLBs ensures quality control on terminology developed by other institutions,
organisations or departments. One of the successes of the NLBs is the production of the
Spelling and orthography rules in the official languages.
•
PLCs
Provincial Language Committee are the provincial oversight structures tasked to
provide advise on language matters in their respective provinces. Their composition
enhances proportional representation of the language groups in that particular
province.
LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS
The role of this unit is as follows:
Compliance – Reactive as outlined in section 11 of the PanSALB Act
– Mandatory Role of attending to Linguistic Rights complaints and/or violations
– Attend to violations at its own accord
– Adjudication violations : Linguistic Human Rights Tribunal
– MOA : Enforcement
– Monitor and Evaluate
– Conduct Audits on existence of Language Policy
– Audits on Language Units
LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS
(Cont.1)
Compliance – Proactive:
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Capacity Building :PLC’S
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Advocacy and Linguistic Human Rights Awareness
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What constitute a linguistic Human Right ?
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Capacity Building : Stakeholders drafting of Language Policies
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Capacity Building : Implementation of Language Policies in Schools
MONITORING & EVALUATION
• Monitoring and evaluation unit has been established
• It has developed a Policy Framework to:
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Ensure that PanSALB’s Mandate is carried out
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That all structures comply with Legislation
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Senior Manager is in charge of all monitoring processes
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Chairperson Forum is consulted for effective implementation
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Executive of PanSALB is assisting in the implementation
LESSONS LEARNT
Successes:
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Production of monolingual, bilingual and trilingual dictionaries
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Production of Nama booklet
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The launch of the Dr Neville Alexander Language Scholarship
Launching of a Linguistic Human Rights Tribunal
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Back log of complaints addressed;
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There are standard operating procedures on how to lodge a complaint;
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There are standard operating standards governing the complaint administration process.
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There is a complaint management system that supports the easy accessibility to the
status of the lodged complaints and statistics of resolved or not resolved complaints.
LESSONS LEARNT (Cont.)
Challenges:
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Language matters have been on the back seat and that is reflected by limited budget.
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Revision of the Act
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The production of monolingual, bilingual and trilingual dictionaries.
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The Launch of the Dr Neville Alexander Language Scholarship
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The establishment of reading clubs in various communities such, old age homes,
prisons and in schools
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Lack of provisions of the Act that give the decisions of the Tribunal binding powers
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Lack sufficient budget to conduct advocacy and awareness programs
THANK YOU