By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Parliament has passed a law that will make sign language the 12th official language in the country.
Members of the National Assembly passed the bill after a year-long process in the legislature.
The constitution had previously provided for 11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
The adoption of the constitutional amendment on Tuesday will bring to 12 the number of official languages in South Africa, once the president signs the bill into law.
Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo says the committee noted the opposing views expressed by a few commentators.
“Adoption of the bill could impact the scope and purpose of the reference to sign language in such legislation.
“Relevant departments administering those and related legislation should take note of this constitutional amendment recognising SASL as an official language in terms of section 6 of the Constitution and consider whether the adoption of the Bill may require a consequential amendment to associated legislation for purposes of clarifying the status of SASL as expressed in the constitution.”
Mothapo explained that in terms of section 74(4) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, a Bill that amends the Constitution may not include provisions other than constitutional amendments and matters connected with the amendments. The Committee noted that the use of South African Sign Language is mentioned in legislation such as the Use of Official Languages Act 12 of 2012, the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996, and the Pan South African Language Board Act 59 of 1995.
In South Africa, the vast majority of deaf people are born to hearing parents – resulting in SASL not being acquired as a first language.
SASL is typically learned in school from peers and is the first language for most deaf children in the country. Although there are regional differences in SASL, the grammatical structure remains consistent nationwide.
There is, however, not always a direct correspondence between SASL and English, as one sign may be translated into multiple English words and vice versa.