South Africa now officially has 12 languages, after Sign Language was officially enacted by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday 19 July.
This followed a parliamentary vote on the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill amending Section 6 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa on Tuesday 2 May.
The bill was officially signed into law at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Wednesday, Ramaphosa noting the occasion as “a milestone in our democracy”.
“Today we are giving effect to that amendment by signing the bill into law,” he said. “Our Constitution enjoins on the state to take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of the indigenous languages of the South African people.
“It further notes that all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and be treated equitably. We are also giving effect to the provision of the Bill of Rights, which prohibits unfair discrimination on grounds such as disability, culture, race and gender. South African Sign Language (SASL) has served as an essential communication tool for our citizens living with disabilities, and this step will further empower the community.”
Ramaphosa said adding sign language as an official one aims to advance the rights and equality of individuals who rely on it as a form of communication.
June Bothma, a sign-language teacher based in the Southern Suburbs, said she was excited about the introduction of SASL as an official language, and agreed it would make a big difference in the lives of the deaf community.
“It will impact the deaf community a lot, especially our access to the important things we need in our daily lives,” she said. “It will give us better access to education, medical and social services, public information, and general communication with people around us.
“For deaf children, the critical developmental milestones have been unmet for decades, because many families with deaf children do not know how to communicate with them; they don’t teach them the important language and social skills.
“We see language development delays in deaf children, and this impacts their success in school and general life.
“We hope that with SASL now an official language deaf children will have equal access to language at home and school, especially if parents and teachers are encouraged to become fluent in SASL.
“It will also help a lot if doctors and medical staff learn sign language because most deaf people are not able to communicate their needs or understand what the doctors are saying.
“Overall, it will improve access to everything we need in life because we’ve experienced a communication gap everywhere we go.”
Ramaphosa said a substantial number of submissions were made and considered to ensure that all issues were appropriately ventilated.
“It has been a long road to get here. Having sign language recognised as an official language will address access to education, economic and other social opportunities as well as public participation. People with hearing impairments will be able to also access more services, public information and a host of other opportunities,” he said.
According to the 2021 World Report on Hearing (WRH), around 12 million South Africans have some form of hearing impairment, with 3,9 million requiring some form of treatment or intervention.
The report was presented and launched by The South African World Hearing Forum (SAWHF) members, World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Office in collaboration with the National Department of Health (NDoH), Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the University of Pretoria’s WHO collaborating centre for deafness and hearing loss.
South Africa is also among very few to have adopted sign language as an official language. It is also the fourth on the African Continent, including Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya.
Ramaphosa agreed that more work is needed to support the language.
- language and we have learners who have completed matric using sign language. Specialised schools for the deaf have to be increased in the country, factoring in geographic spread and need. They also have to be provided with qualified personnel.
“It is also crucial that there are sign-language interpreters to enable access to services for people who cannot hear or hear properly. For many years lack of sign language interpreters at the courts, police stations, hospitals, clinics and many service centres or points have been compromising access to justice for victims of violence, including victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and many other crimes.”
Bothma said there was a misconception about the difficulties of learning to sign. “It is a common misconception,” she said. SASL looks complicated when you are watching the signed conversation, but if you understand the grammatical structure and the basics you will begin to see how beautiful and straightforward it is.
SASL is a visual language, and the way we use our hands, face, and body language is structured by clear grammatical rules, and our sentences have their own syntax.
Learning sign language takes a lot of practice, and some people find it difficult because they have to switch from a verbal language to a visual language and maintain eye contact with the people they are communicating with.
“I’ve been teaching SASL at the University of Cape Town since 2011, and the third-year audiology and speech-therapy students are naturally nervous when they first come to my classes. But after a couple of weeks, they tell me SASL is easy to learn.”
According to Ramaphosa, policies with fully resourced implementation plans are required to realise the Constitutional ideal of multilingualism.
The South African National Deaf Association (Sanda) first made an application for the inclusion of South African Sign Language as an official language in May 2016.
“Studies across the globe and nationally have universally established that sign languages should not be confused with gesturing or pantomime,” the organisation wrote in its submission.
Bothma will host a free talk for families with deaf children or family members, or even those who work with the deaf community on Saturday 5 August from 10:00 to noon at Callow House, 3a Richmond Road, Kenilworth. For more information, or to book a place, contact June Bothma (who is deaf) via WhatsApp, 083 448 1837, or email signlanguagebyjune@gmail.com
