Cabinet decision on languages welcomed
Independent Online - Cape Town,South Africa
The decision by the cabinet to approve the setting up of structures that would ensure that government department's documents are available in all the official languages was welcomed by several organisations on Wednesday. The cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal for government departments to establish language units to implement the language policy framework. The framework makes provision for all government documents to be available in all 11 official languages. "This will definitely create conditions for the development and promotion of the equal use and enjoyment of the indigenous African languages in these government institutions, especially because they have been squeezed to the periphery for so long," the Pan South African Language Board said ... "This decision by cabinet is a necessary acknowledgement that English, although it is considered a business and global language, is not and cannot be the only and all important official language and that the other languages deserve equal status," the organisation added. It called for the decision to be extended to all government activities ...