WARNING THAT AFRICAN LANGUAGES FACE EXTINCTION

Futhi Ntshingila

Sunday Times Online
May 28 2006

Most speak Zulu at home, English at work, says survey, warning that African Languages face extinction.

ZULU is by far the most widely spoken first language in South Africa, but English, favoured by 64% of South Africans as the country's "main" official language, is preferred for business communication.

This is according to a study of South African language use by Plus 94 Research, a marketing research company.

The survey found that nearly 25% of South Africa's 46 million people spoke Zulu as their home language, followed by Xhosa at 17%, Afrikaans at 16% and English at 10%.

English and Afrikaans are languages that all race groups are capable of speaking to a lesser or greater degree.

As a group, black people speak the widest range of languages - three.

Whites and coloureds can mostly speak two languages, and 19% of Indians in the country can also speak two.

The findings are consistent with the 2002 National Census, which found Zulu was spoken by more than 10.6 million people, or 23.8% of the population.

Mtubatuba economist Roland Vorwerk said that indigenous languages should be made accessible to all South Africans.

"It's disappointing to see that integrated schools have not taken the opportunity to promote African languages to white pupils," said Vorwerk.

The Plus 94 Research found that Pedi and Tswana were each the home language of 9% of South Africans, Sotho of 8%, Tsonga of 4%, Swati 2%, Venda 2% and Ndebele 1%.

The study said that more than half of all South Africans still experienced difficulties in getting service in the language of their choice, particularly from places such as banks and cellphone companies.

The study found that English speakers were the least affected by the language barrier, while Xhosa and Zulu speakers felt most aggrieved by it.

Plus 94 Research CEO Sifiso Falala said respondents across all races in nine provinces were interviewed for the survey. The aim of the project was to investigate the use of official languages.

"It became clear that the idea of a dominant language is not something that is popular with everyone," said Falala.

"Some of the development goals of this country need to take into account the issue of language."

The study found that, although English was the mother tongue of only 10% of South Africans, 64% were in favour of it being the "main" official language.

Provinces with a majority of their people supporting the use of English as the main language were North West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Most people in the Eastern Cape were opposed to the idea.

At least 50% of Xhosa mother-tongue speakers thought English should not enjoy a more prominent role than other languages, closely followed by 40% of Sotho and 34% of Afrikaans first language speakers.

Kgomotso Mokgola, manager for translation and interpreting at the Pan South African Language Board, said the dominance of one language over others did a disservice to other language groups.

"To say that English should be the main official language is to deprive other languages of their status as given by the Constitution," said Mokgola.

"What we have to strive for is to develop those languages that are less developed."

In the survey, most Indians living in KwaZulu-Natal claimed they spoke English and Zulu.

"I guess I have always been able to communicate in Zulu as far back as I can remember, because people around me spoke in Zulu," says Sathish Ramdas, who grew up in KwaZulu-Natal Midlands town of Greytown.

Last year a heated debate ensued when national Minister of Education Naledi Pandor spoke in favour of the use of indigenous languages in schools in order to promote equity.

Pandor received support from traditional leaders, who said indigenous languages were important in enriching different cultures in the country.

"If you look at most [former] model C schools, only English and Afrikaans are being used," said National House of Traditional Leaders CEO Abraham Sithole.

Sithole said: "Most of the media that we have is in English. There are very few Zulu publications that I know of. The same with television, [where] a large [proportion] of what is said is in English."

He said the house was holding an imbizo of traditional representatives to discuss an action plan because African languages were in danger of extinction.

"Even the president of the country had expressed concern with the demise of African languages," he said.