Sign Language To Become South Africa’s 12th Official Language

Sign African Sign Language is now part of South Africa’s official language, the SASL has been given a thumbs up to become an official language in SA by the National Assembly after approving the report of the portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development.

The bill still needs to be officially sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign the bill into law. Once signed by the president, section 6 of Constitution and the National Official Languages Act will be changed by amendment to officially recognize SASL.

The country currently has official languages which are IsiXhosa, English, Sepedi, Sesotho, isiNdebele, isiZulu, Afrikaans, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga.

It has been a long road trying to make SASL an official language. According to IOL report, in 2015 the Deaf South Africa, and other organizations submitted a request for sign language to be officially South African language. The Deaf South Africa said, while sign language was recognized in the Constitution and given a special status, it is not enough to allow deaf people to enjoy all constitutional rights.

In 2020 the parliamentary committee first proposed the adoption of making SASL an official language.

Parliament spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo said making SASL an official language will promote inclusivity and eliminate unfair discrimination.

“The amendment seeks to advance the cultural acceptance of SASL, the deaf culture; ensure the realisation of the rights of persons who are deaf and hard of hearing to equal protection and benefit of the law and human dignity; and to promote inclusive and substantive equality and prevent or eliminate unfair discrimination on the ground of disability, as guaranteed by Section 9 of the Constitution.”

“The committee noted the opposing views expressed by a few commentators, but submits that the recognition of SASL, as a 12th official language, is an important step towards the realisation of the rights of persons who are deaf and hard of hearing.

“Further, the committee acknowledged that SASL is not a universal language (different countries have their own sign language and regions have dialects) but submits that, in South Africa, it is in the promotion and development of SASL that the various dialects are also recognised,” Mothapo said.

While speaking to CapeTalk, Prof Theodorus Du Plessis of Department of South African Sign Language and Deaf Studies at the University of the Free State stated the importance of addition of sign language as an official language.

“Other than the symbolic meaning, there’s really not much in it. The fact is that our language rights as South Africans are protected in the Constitution but not in relation to any official language.”

“The only rights we have in terms of official language are the rights linked to schooling. And this right was already given to persons with hearing loss in 1996, so sign language was already an official language in schools. But other than that, we don’t have actual language rights linked to our languages being official since only one language is used by the State,” said the professor.

Main Image: IOL

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