A critical analysis of South Africa’s contemporary language policies with specific reference to the Use of Official Languages Act No. 12 of 2012 for government purposes

Abstract

Although South Africa is home to nine indigenous African languages, English remains the dominant official language in democratic South Africa. This continues despite the fact that the country’s Constitution and the Use of Official Languages Act (UOLA) of 2012 oblige the government to safeguard that all official languages are equitably used and indigenous languages developed and promoted. This study aims to establish why English continues to dominate most of South Africa’s public forums, given that the country’s language policies aim to elevate the status and advance the use of the indigenous languages. The study investigates how South African language policies are conceived and how they compare with countries considered to have good language policy models and best practices. It explores the extent to which language policies are being implemented and the implications of in effective implementation or non-implementation. The study looks for evident trends, in terms of the extent and nature of the government’s compliance with South African language policies and how those trends inform strategies that would allow the government to achieve their legislated language goals. Ultimately, the study aims to offer solutions and devise strategies that can be applied to activate or support the implementation of language policies of various government departments in South Africa. The study presents some practical aids that can assist in addressing identified problems. The UOLA Compliance Tool for Language Policy Development is a simple device that can be used by government departments and their entities to assess whether their language policies comply with UOLA. The study proposes a series of steps that government departments, public entities and public enterprises can follow to develop and implement language policies efficiently. Finally, the study provides recommendations designed to assist the national government departments, national public entities and national public enterprises in order to act in accordance with Section 6 of the Constitutions of the Republic of South Africa (Act No. 108 of 1996) and the Use of Official Languages Act No. 12 of 2012