Establish multilingualism at universities

WHEN it comes to language diversity, South Africa is a global frontrunner. Only Zimbabwe, India, and Bolivia have more official languages. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent amendment of the Constitution to introduce Sign Language as South Africa’s 12th official language, emphasises the government’s commitment to cultivating a multilingual society. Section 29 of the South African Constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of his/her choice in public educational institutions where such education is reasonably practicable. Regrettably, the reasonably practicable stipulation is often used as an excuse by many learning institutions to focus on English only since there is still a widespread lack of learning resources in indigenous African languages. The recent Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions states: “It is…