Indigenous Language In South Africa

QUESTION TWO

Language is the medium whereby one may understand or grasp the essence, material intent of the moments of the court proceedings, and thereby achieve comprehension. The 1996 South African Constitution contains a number of provisions that deal specifically with the protection of languages and of rights relating to language. The most important of these is section 6 which recognises 11 languages as official languages. Section 6(2) states that the state "must take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages". Section 6(3) determines the use of languages for the national government, the nine provincial governments and municipalities. Criteria to take into consideration implementing a language

Since 1994, South Africans have conscientiously placed much value and effort into policy creation at national, provincial and local government levels. This includes policies which dictate how business is to be done, how we receive social welfare and under what guidelines we are to be educated. This policy-fatigue is then the result of lack of implementation. One cannot deny the years of neglect and lack of both corpus and status planning from which these languages suffer. During the apartheid regime, indigenous languages were only important in so far as they served as the tools for the division of African people into conflicting and competing so-called ethnic groups . The use of a particular official language will be dependent on usage, practicality, expense, regional circumstances and the needs and preferences of the population in a particular province

In this case the guiding principles relating to the use of particular languages in court proceedings were set out by the Court. The court stated that section 6(1) of the Magistrates ' Courts Act 32 of 1944 permits the use of either official language at any stage of the proceedings in a magistrate 's court. It follows that the use of official languages (English and Afrikaans, which today must be read to include the use of indigenous languages) in the courts for all parties including the officers of the court does not only entail a thorough understanding of such languages but also the development of fluency in the use of languages. It also stated that in a multi-ethnic society, like South Africa, not every practitioner has equal opportunity to achieve the required standard. Nevertheless, the duty exists to strive to achieve the ideal. Furthermore, it was said that the essence of the right to understand also encompass a duty on legal practitioners and prosecutors to conduct the proceedings in a language in which he or she is more competent and a party, including an accused or a witness, has the right to use a language of his choice whether it be an official language or not. This case makes it clear that prior the constitutional dispensation, before the interim constitution, prior the final constitution, the language rights or rather rights to understand had to be