indigenous languages

SABC scraps Afrikaans for minority killer language

The SABC will do away with Afrikaans news bulletins on its 24 hour news channel on DStv.

Black indigenous South African language bulletins, including Zulu, Siswati, Tsonga, Xhosa, isiNdebele, Sotho and Venda will also be scrapped.

As from April 1, all bulletins will be done in English.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago says the decision was informed by the fact that the channel has to compete with other international English language channels.

Kganyago maintains that the channel “lost viewers each time indigenous language news bulletins were aired”, but satellite competitors StarSat and OpenView HD don’t have any local news channels.

Some SABC TV news bulletins in other languages actually grab a larger slice of the audience than the flagship.

The news in isiZulu on SABC1 commands a staggering average of 3.6 million viewers, while the isiXhosa news, also on SABC1, pulls in 3.4 million people. The Afrikaans news has more than 1.5 million viewers.

The one-size-fits-all approach that South Africans are now stuck with, is really only for the benefit of the tiniest minority of English speakers, a clear indication of the killer language at work once more.

Meanwhile the wage bill of the SABC is set to soar by close to R100 million. The increase is a result of bigger board member fees, salaries and filled vacancies.

The increase comes in the wake of a strained economic climate, less advertising spending and a drop in viewers.

Indigenous languages under threat

With the 2011 census showing a decline in six of the 11 official languages, linguists are warning that failure to teach in home languages will lead to continued failures at schools and universities.

With a decline in the use of Zulu, Sepedi, Sotho, Tswana and Swati, the head of the Wits University language school, Nhlanhla Thwala said: “Teaching pupils in their mother tongue is imperative to ensuring success at schools and tertiary institutions.”

While most indigenous languages showed a decrease in popularity, English, Afrikaans and Ndebele recorded increases, with 9.6%, 13.5% and 2.1% of the population speaking these languages respectively.

Zulu and Xhosa remained the most popular languages, with 22.7% (11.5million people) and 16% (8million people) of the population speaking them respectively. The number of whites and Indians speaking Zulu increased.

Although decreasing in popularity in the Northern Cape and Western Cape, Afrikaans is the third-most-popular language.

English language speakers increased to 4.9million from 3.7million in 2001.

Thwala said South Africa’s “tragedy” was that even though so many indigenous languages were spoken, children were not taught in them.

“We are essentially ignoring well-known facts – if you want to learn you must do so in your mother tongue. If we do not, South Africa will continue to experience high failure rates in schools and universities,” he said.

Languages reflected the power dynamics of a country, Thwala said.

“People speak a language for a reason. Increases and decreases show which languages people find useful, regardless of whether they are their first language.”

While the increases were not surprising, the changes were, Thwala said.

“The popularity of Zulu and Xhosa are understandable, with Zulu South Africa’s de facto second language. People hear Zulu more than other languages, therefore there is a greater expectation to speak it.”

Research showed Zulu, the most widely recognised of the Nguni languages, was by far the most requested by people wanting to learn a language, he said.

While the increase in Afrikaans was surprising, once a language gained an advantage – be it through the amount of school materials or available teachers – it was difficult to undermine.

“Social engineering to either promote or undermine languages does not work.

“This is evident from fanakalo, which, while not official continues to be spoken, especially on mines. timeslive.co.za

Black man longs for his homeland

Mafikeng’s incorporation into the then homeland [bantustan] of Bophuthatswana in 1980, made it a great place, says a black town member. Mpho Moshe Matheolane bemoans how the ANC allowed the well-functioning town of Mafikeng to deteriorate into the sad state it is now.

The then president Chief Lucas Mangope, who had succeeded in outdoing chief Tidimane Pilane for the position of the first (and only) chief minister in 1972 following the inaugural meeting of the Bophuthatswana Legislative Assembly, found himself in what can only be described as a quagmire of note in the period leading up to South Africa’s first democratic elections. Unable to relinquish power, he put his faith in the AWB in the hopes that his “country” would resist incorporation back into South Africa.

Despite Mangope’s blunders and the clearly unwelcome position by many anti-apartheid political movements, that Bophuthatswana like all the other homelands was a step in the wrong direction regarding the collective struggle of the native peoples of South Africa, Bophuthatswana went on to become the best run and most successful of the homelands. The argument has been made before; under the Bophuthatswana black-run government many positive things were achieved, even in the face of relying on apartheid South Africa for backing and the subsequently unfortunate endorsement of the policy of racially based separate development.

Infrastructure such as an airport, a broadcasting centre (Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC), a quality university (UniBo) and internationally equipped and state of the art recording studio, to name but a few, were put in place. A strong sense of identity both culturally and socially was entrenched in many of the homeland’s inhabitants. It was required that one be as fluent and literate in their mother tongue as they were in English or Afrikaans.

Of course, this is not to say that the Bophuthatswana days were the halcyon days as the rest of the country continued to go through the motions of a land forcefully coming to terms with its destiny. Even within its borders, a constant awareness of the stark contrast of life outside permeated the minds of many. But the significance of this historical context becomes relevant when one looks at what the former Bophuthatswana homeland became after a democratic dispensation was achieved. Under the current ANC leadership and since 1994, Mafikeng as the apparent synecdoche of Bophuthatswana and its entire functioning infrastructure all but came to a tragic halt and dare one say, deliberate near-destruction.

Logic arguably dictates that given much of the work that had already been accomplished in Mafikeng, all that the ANC had to do was to build on top of it. But this was never the case. The former BBC which, according to some sources, already had the capacity to provide a number of national channels several times over its now embarrassingly incompetent parent body, the SABC, quickly deteriorated. The international recording studios, which were used for part of the award winning Lion King musical production, were put under lock and key, while the airport, which is still in the list of longest runways in the world, was passed on for some private use despite the brief SAA connecting flights that were operated from it.

Mafikeng as it stands does not have a town gallery even though many a talent came and continue to come out of it. The town museum is a dishevelled institution which currently sees its parking lot being utilised by the provincial department of public works. In any given year, a new shopping mall can spring up a mere five minutes from the next one, creating in turn, ghostly complexes whose interiors are filled with to-let signs and emptiness. These are but only a few of the many things that are now administratively wrong with Mafikeng.

The sprawling rural land that was tamed into a town as sensitively depicted in the photographic work of Paul Alberts, The Borders of Apartheid, is now nothing but a shadow of its former self. Thanks to black rule.