Sign language to be South Africa's 12th official language

South African Sign Language will be the country's 12th official language. (Source: Sowetan Live)

After a year-long review process, the South African Parliament recently passed a bill that will make sign language the country's 12th official language.

At the plenary session on May 2, the South African Parliament unanimously passed the above bill, which is also an amendment to section 6 of the Constitution, which stipulates South African Sign Language (SASL) as an official language to promote the rights of deaf people.

However, the bill still needs to be referred to the National Council of Provinces (Senate) for consent and then sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa for signing into law.

Since 1994, the South African Constitution has provided for 11 official languages including Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

Last year, the country's Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services tabled a bill related to sign language for approval by members of Parliament.

“In essence, the amendment to section 6 of the Constitution seeks to promote cultural acceptance of the SASL), the culture of deaf people; ensure the realization of the rights of deaf and hard of hearing people to be protected and enjoy equality before the law and dignity; and promote full and substantive equality and prevent or eliminate unfair discrimination on the basis of disability,” the South African Parliament statement stressed.

South African Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo said the justice committee had received 58 written submissions from individuals and organisations, most of which were in support of the bill.

For his part, the Western Cape Provincial Director of the Deaf Association of South Africa (DeafSA), Jabaar Mohamed, welcomed the decision, stressing that this move will bring many opportunities for deaf children, women and the deaf community nationwide.

Acknowledging that initially adopting SASL as an official language would have challenges, Mr Mohamed called on all citizens to respect and understand SASL as well as the culture of deaf people.

In South Africa, there are more than 4 million deaf people and the country is the 14th country in the world to make SASL an official language.

VNA