Culture
South Africa celebrates its multilingualism

afrol.com, 21 September - South Africa, like many other African nations, is a rich, diversified society when it comes to languages and cultures. Eleven languages are official and there are many more spoke. This represents a resource, South Africans agree. Therefore, the theme for this year's celebrations of Heritage Day will be "Celebrating our multilingualism."

Ben Ngubane, the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology will host the Heritage Day celebrations, which will be held on 24 September 2000 in Pietersburg in the Northern Province. Apart from Ngubane who will deliver the keynote address, Premier Ramathlodi of the Northern Province, will also officiate.

- Our Constitution recognises eleven official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu, minister Ngubane informs.

Other languages mentioned are those commonly used by different communities in South Africa, such as Khoi, Nama, San, Sign Language, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu, and languages used for religious purposes, such as Arabic, Hebrew and Sanskrit.

The Ministry said that the Country's multilingualism should be seen as a resource with the potential to empower all South Africans to participate fully in the Country's social, political and economic life.

Heritage Day celebrations, on 24 September, will be held in Pietersburg, the capital of the Northern Province, where many of our marginalised languages are spoken. Apart from an official programme a cultural programme, aimed at promoting multilingualism has also been arranged.

Spoornet has made available a "multilingual train" to ferry a number of guests and artists to Pietersburg and back. The train will leave Johannesburg at 19h15 on Saturday night, 23 September.

There will be performances and other activities on the platform in Johannesburg and on board the train after its release from the Johannesburg station by the MEC for Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation of Gauteng, Mr Gungubele.

With the aim of promoting goodwill among speakers of different languages, activities on the train will include : 

* Mutual learning and teaching of key words, phrases, clauses, etc.;
* PANSALB Multilingual Crossword Puzzle;
* Prize-giving;
* Distribution and discussion of PANSALB/NLS literature on multilingualism, and
* Informal exchanges.

Source: S.A. Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology

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