Universidad de Manila

One Mehan Gardens, Manila,

Philippines 1000

Topic:Written Report

Discussants: Sierra, Messiah Joel B.

Delos Santos, Stefanie

Habla, Judith

Subject:Language Program and Policies in Multilingual Societies

Professor: Mr. Rodolfo Martinez, Jr.

________________________________________________________
_____

MAP
Quick Facts About

South Africa

 South Africa is

a country

situated

at the southern

tip of the continent Africa. (It’s surprising how many people

don’t know this.)

 It is almost twice (1.75 times) as big as Texas.

 It has a population of about 52 million people.

 South Africa’s currency is the Rand.

 The Atlantic ocean is on the west coast and the Indian ocean is

on the east coast and south coast. The two oceans meet at Cape

Town.
  South Africa’s neighbors are Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe,

Mozambique, Swaziland, and Lesotho.

 The Limpopo river forms a big part of South Africa’s northern

border.

A Brief History

The earliest history of South Africa is not well-documented. The

earliest people living in South Africa were the Khoi and San. While

there seems to be some dispute over exactly when the first Blacks

moved across the Limpopo river into modern-day South Africa, some

sources put it at around the 1500-1600s. The first Europeans to set

foot in South Africa were Portuguese sailors in 1488.

The written history of South Africa began in 1652 when the Dutch

landed on April 6 at what is Cape Town today. The Suez Canal did not

exist in those days and the only route from Europe to the East was

around the southern tip of Africa. Due to the length of the voyage,

sailors would get sick due to the lack of fresh food and water on board

the ships. The purpose of the Dutch arrival was to build a settlement

that could resupply these ships with fresh water and food about mid-

way through their long voyage.

The Dutch settlement expanded to the east until the settlers met with

the westerly-expanding Xhosa people. This resulted in a series of wars

between the Dutch and Xhosa.

In the early 1800’s, Great Britain seized the Cape Colony from the

Dutch and continued the wars against the Xhosa. Many of the Dutch

colonists wouldn’t accept British rule and moved to the north to where

Johannesburg is today, as well as to the north-east to where the

province known as Kwazulu-Natal is today. This was known as the

Great Trek.

The discovery of gold and diamonds in the mid-1800’s near

Johannesburg led to further expansion by the British. This resulted in

two wars with the Dutch colonists who moved to the north. These wars

were known as the Anglo-Boer wars. The Boers (Dutch) won the first

war, but were defeated in the second war after the British

implemented a “scorched earth” campaign and placed Boer women

and children in concentration camps.

The defeat of the Boers led to the formation of the Union of South

Africa in 1910 as a self-governing state of the British Empire.

In 1948, the government began implementing a series of

segregationist laws that later became known as apartheid

(“separateness”). Apartheid was simply meant to be a system of

separate development of South Africa’s diverse racial groups, each

developing within their own group. It was the implementation of

Apartheid that produced problems.

In 1961 the Union of South Africa gained independence from Britain

and became the Republic of South Africa.

Apartheid had a negative impact on South African society in many

ways. It became increasingly controversial and eventually led to

international sanctions and massive unrest amongst South Africa’s

people. Although some of the unrest was coerced (people were forced

to participate under threat of violence), it still had the effect of

destabilizing the country.

This eventually led to the country’s first multi-racial elections in 1994.

The African National Congress (ANC) won the election overwhelmingly

and Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president.

(This is an extremely brief overview of South Africa’s history. If you

are interested in the subject, you may want to read some of several

books published on the subject.)

Demographics
According to a census in 2011, South Africa’s population of

approximately 52 million (45 million in 2000) people is made up of

79% Blacks (75% in 2000), 9% Whites (14% in 2000), 9% Coloureds

(9% in 2000), and 3% Asians (3% in 2000).

The Black population consists of Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho, Bapedi, Venda,

Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi, and Ndebele. Whites descend mostly from

Dutch, German, French, and British immigrants. The Coloured people

are a mixed race descending mostly from the indigenous Khoisan,

Blacks, Whites, Malay, and Indian. The Asian population are mostly

Indian and some Chinese.

As a result of this diverse population, South Africa has 11 official

languages. They are Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho,

Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu.

Economy

South Africa’s economy is the strongest in Africa and its GDP

represents about 30% of the GDP of the entire Africa.

The country has an abundant supply of natural resources and well-

developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport

sectors.

South Africa’s currency, the Rand, is the world’s most actively traded

emerging market currency, and from 2002 to 2005 it was the best

performing currency against the US Dollar.

Challenges

HIV & AIDS

South Africa has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the

world, with 20% of adults being HIV positive. The South African

government’s response to this problem has been slow. In 2000 South

Africa’s President (Thabo Mbeki) questioned whether HIV caused AIDS

and suggested instead that poverty caused AIDS!

It is projected that AIDS will have a devastating impact on the South

African economy and society unless urgent action is taken.

Crime

Unfortunately South Africa also has one of the highest crime rates in

the world, with murder and carjackings being rife. In particular, violent

crime with an element of vindictiveness (house robberies with victims

being raped or otherwise tortured and often killed afterwards) has

reared its ugly head in recent years.

The South African government has been reluctant to acknowledge and

address the problem. In 2006 the South African Safety and Security

Minister (Charles Nqakula) suggested to those who didn’t like the

crime, to leave South Africa.

Tourism

South Africa is a popular tourist destination due to a spectacular

coastline and many well-developed nature parks.

Some of the most popular attractions include Cape Town and the

surrounding area, including Table Mountain and the Western Cape

wine region, the south coast, and the game parks, like the Kruger

Park, Shamwari, and many more.

South Africa attracts many big game hunters every year. Many travel

agencies specialize in putting together safari packages for tourists.

An airline flight from Europe takes approximately 10 – 12 hours, and a

flight from the U.S. directly to Johannesburg takes approximately 18

hours. South Africa is serviced by several major airlines, like South

African Airways, Delta Airlines, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Air

France.

LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA

In South Africa, as in many other countries around the world

with either an ethnically mixed population or with a colonial past,

language is an extremely emotive issue with economic, social and

more often than not, political implications. In essence, South Africa is

a country made up of language minorities with English as the

dominant language in terms of its position as the official means of

communication and in its dominance in the media and the economy. It

explores some aspects of multilingualism and the status of minority

languages within the context of the surrounding that matters in South

Africa.
 At least thirty-five languages indigenous to South

Africa are spoken in the Republic, eleven of which are

official languages of South Africa: Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho,

SiSwati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans. The

eleventh official language is South African English

The most common language spoken as a first language by South

Africans is Zulu (23 percent), followed by Xhosa (16 percent), and

Afrikaans (14 percent). English is the fourth most common first

language in the country (9.6%), but is understood in most urban areas

and is the dominant language in government and the media.

The majority of South Africans speak a language from one of the

two principal branches of the Bantu languages that are represented in

South Africa: the Sotho–Tswana branch (which includes Southern

Sotho, Northern Sotho and Tswana languages officially), or

the Nguni branch (which includes Zulu, Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele

languages officially). For each of the two groups, the languages within

that group are for the most part intelligible to a native speaker of any

other language within that group.

The indigenous African languages of South Africa which are

official, and therefore dominant, can be divided into two geographical

zones, with Nguni languages being predominant in the south-eastern

third of the country (Indian Ocean coast) and Sotho-Tswana languages

being predominant in the northern third of the country located further

inland, as also in Botswana and Lesotho. Gauteng is the most

linguistically heterogeneous province, with roughly equal numbers of

Nguni, Sotho-Tswana and Indo-European language speakers, with

Khoekhoe influence. This has resulted in the spread of an urban

argot, Tsotsitaal or S'Camtho/Ringas, in large urban townships in the

province, which has spread nationwide.

Since winning the 1994 election, the ANC has promoted English

as the main language of government, even if South Africans often take

pride in using indigenous languages for any purpose. Afrikaans also

features prominently in commerce.

 Many unofficial languages have been variously claimed to be

dialects of official languages, which largely follows

the Apartheid practice of the Bantustans, wherein minority populations

where legally assimilated towards the official ethnos of the Bantustan

or "Homeland".

Significant numbers of immigrants from Europe, elsewhere

in Africa, and the Indian subcontinent (largely as a result of the

British Indian indenture system) means that a wide variety of other

languages can also be found in parts of South Africa. In the older

immigrant communities there

are: Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telugu,Urdu, Yiddish, It

alian and smaller numbers of Dutch, French and German speakers.

Most South Africans are multilingual, able to speak more than

one language. English- and Afrikaans-speaking people tend not to

have much ability in indigenous languages, but are fairly fluent in each

other’s language. Most South Africans speak English, which is fairly

ubiquitous in official and commercial public life. The country’s other

lingua franca is Zulu. Many of South Africa’s linguistic groups share a

common ancestry. But as groupings and clans broke up in search of

autonomy and greener pastures for their livestock, variations of the

common languages evolved.

African English which is the de factor primary language used in

parliamentary and state discourse, though all official languages are

equal in legal status, and unofficial languages are protected under the

Constitution of South Africa, though few are mentioned by any

name. South African Sign Language has legal recognition but is not an

official language, despite a campaign and parliamentary

recommendation for it to be declared one. Most South Africans can

speak more than one language, and there is very often

a diglossia between official and unofficial language forms for speakers

of the latter,

South Africa’s nine African official languages all fall into the

Southern Bantu-Makua subfamily, part of the broad and branching

Niger-Congo family of languages. The languages arrived here during

the great expansion of Bantu-speaking people from West Africa

eastwards and southwards into the rest of the continent. The

expansion began in around 3000 BCE and was largely complete by

1000 CE.

Like all languages in the Niger-Congo family they are tonal

languages, in which either a high or low tone gives a word a different

meaning.
The nine African languages can be broadly divided in two:

 Nguni-Tsonga languages: isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, siSwati,

Xitsonga

 Sotho-Makua-Venda languages: Sesotho, Sesotho sa Leboa,

Setswana, Tshivenda

LANGUAGE DISTRIBUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA

The dominant language in the different regions of South Africa.

The map does not indicate the number of language speakers, simply

the language most commonly spoken. So, while Afrikaans dominates

the Northern Cape, that province is sparsely populated, so the actual

number of Afrikaans speakers is limited. Similarly, KwaZulu-Natal is

densely populated, so there are a great many isisZulu speakers in the

province.
THE DOMINANT LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN SOUTH AFRICA

ZULU

Zulu is one of the official languages of South Africa and is a

member of the Bantu/Nguni family of languages. It is spoken by

about 9 million people mainly in Zululand and northern Natal in South

Africa and also in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and

Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).

During the early 19th century Christian missionaries, including J W

Colenso, S B Stone, H Callaway and Lewis Grant devised a way to

write Zulu. The first Zulu Christian booklet Incwadi Yokuqala

Yabafundayo was written by Newton Adams, George Newton and

Aldin Grout between 1837-8 and explained the spelling of Zulu words

and the history of the Old Testament. The first Zulu version of the

bible was produced between1845-1883 and in 1859 L. Grout

published the first Zulu grammar book.

English, Dutch and later Afrikaans had been the only official

languages used by all South African governments before 1994.

However, in the Kwazulu bantustan the Zulu language was widely

used. All education in the country at the high-school level was in

English or Afrikaans. Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, Zulu has

been enjoying a marked revival. Zulu-language television was

introduced by the SABC in the early 1980s and it broadcasts news and

many shows in Zulu. Zulu radio is very popular and newspapers such

as isoLezwe, Ilangaand UmAfrika in the Zulu language are available

in Kwazulu-Natal province and in Johannesburg. In January 2005 the

first full-length feature film in Zulu, Yesterday, was nominated for

an Oscar.

South African matriculation requirements no longer specify which

South African language needs to be taken as a second language, and

some people have made the switch to learning Zulu. However people

taking Zulu at high-school level overwhelmingly take it as a first

language: according to statistics, Afrikaans is still over 30 times more

popular than Zulu as a second language. 

The Zulu people take their name from the warrior King Shaka,

who was responsible for the unification and rise to power of the

ancient kingdom, and make up South Africa’s largest ethnic group,

making isiZulu the most common home language in the country

(census 2011)
WRITING SYSTEM OF ZULU

AFRIKAANS

Afrikaans is a Low Franconian West Germanic language

descended from Dutch and spoken mainly in South Africa and

Namibia. There are also speakers of Afrikaans in Australia, Belgium,

Botswana, Canada, Germany, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, the

Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

About 7.2 million people speak Afrikaans as a native language, and a

further 8-15 million speak it as a second language.

Afrikaans retains some features of 18th century Dutch,

together with vocabulary from various Bantu and Khoisan languages

and also from Portugese and Malay. Speakers of Afrikaans can

understand Dutch, though Dutch speakers tend to need a while to

tune into Afrikaans.

AFRIKAANS WRITING SYSTEM

From about 1815 Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the

language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa. At that time

it was written with the Arabic alphabet.

Afrikaans, written with the Latin alphabet, started to appeared

in newspapers and political and religious works in about 1850. Then

in 1875 a group of Afrikaans speakers from the Cape formed

the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaners),

and published a number of books in Afrikaans, including grammars,

dictionaries, religious material and histories. They also published a

journal called the Patriot.

During the early years of the 20th century there was a blossoming of

academic interest in Afrikaans. In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by

the government as a real language, instead of a slang version of

Dutch. Afrikaans has changed little since then.

HOW DO THEY CHOOSE THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES?

THE AFRIKAANS

According to Act 8 of 1925, Afrikaans became one of the official

languages of South Africa. The development of Afrikaans can be traced

to arrival of settlers to the Cape. This is however not the sole factor

that led to the development of Afrikaans, as it was employed by the

servants, slaves and indigenous traders to communicate with the

Dutch. This is substantiated by the variety of influences present in

Afrikaans. These would include Khoisan, Malaysian, French, Dutch,

English and German among others. This does not mean that the

language is only limited to these influences, as various dialects are

spoken all over South Africa, with the dominant indigenous language

of a region influencing the dialect of Afrikaans in that region. The

popularity of Afrikaans and its subsequent endorsement by the

Apartheid government, have their roots in the attempted social

engineering project by which the Dutch population in South Africa

sought to unify members of this group.  It aimed to build a South

African nationalism that recognised their varied origins, but one that

emphasised a unique South African identity. However this identity was

largely based on race and Afrikaans as a language thus became

synonymous with White oppression in South Africa. Despite this

attempt at creating a schism with regard to language and race among

South Africans, Afrikaans is widely spoken by Black people.

ZULU

During apartheid, South Africa had two official languages,

English and Afrikaans. Indigenous languages, like the people who

spoke them, were considered inferior. "Language for the Afrikaner

nationalists had been central to their identity, their being, their

struggle," said South African constitutional judge Albie Sachs. "They

could just about imagine conceding democracy, and could just about

imagine a constitution in which black and white were equal. But if

Afrikaans was downgraded”

Government recognition of 11 languages reflects Nelson

Mandela's vision of an inclusive rainbow nation. But it has also

created tensions: English dominates in many spheres of business and

culture, as it does elsewhere around the globe. Afrikaans remains

tainted by its association with apartheid, even as some of its younger

speakers are trying to change that. Also, some middle class blacks

prefer to speak English in the home, rather than Xhosa, Tswana or

other indigenous languages. 

South Africa has nearly seven million Afrikaans native speakers,

placing it ahead of English, but behind Zulu and Xhosa.

More than 11 million South Africans grew up speaking Zulu, but few

speak it as a second language, and fewer still speak it in business

settings. As a result, the language is not evolving as rapidly as say,

English.

Language policies and programs in South Africa

English in South Africa. The English language in south africa (SAE)

dates From the arrival of the british at the Cape of good Hope in

1795. As was the case in most colonies, English was introduced first by

soldiers and administrators, Then by missionaries, settlers, and

fortune-seekers.

The position and role of English were deeply political from the

start. English was the language of power during the 19th century, and

was imposed in 1822 as the official language of the Cape Colony,

replacing Dutch, the cause of great resentment among citizens

of Dutch descent– a resentment which was later intensified and

hardened among Afrikaners by the South African War of 1899-1901.

Apartheid Policy in South Africa (1948).

Policy that governed relations between South Africa’s white

minority and nonwhite majority and sanctioned racial segregation and

political and economic Discrimination against nonwhites.

The Separate Amenities Act, for instance, imposed segregation

1953 Reservation of all public facilities, including post offices, beaches,

stadiums, parks, toilets, and cemeteries, and buses and trains as well.

Apartheid Law

Numerous laws were passed in the creation of the apartheid state in

the 1950s

Here are a few of the pillars on which apartheid rested:

Population Registration Act, 1950 - This Act demanded that people

be registered according to their racial group. This meant that the

Department of Home Affairs would have a record of people according

to whether they were White, Coloured, Black, Indian or Asian.

Group Areas Act, 1950 - This was the Act that started physical

separation between races, especially in urban areas. 

The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (originally introduced

as the Unlawful Organisations Bill) - The Act was introduced in an

attempt to curb the influence of the CPSA and other formations that

opposed the government's apartheid policy.

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an

Apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between

"Europeans" and "non-Europeans". 

Separate Representation of Voters Act No. 46 was introduced

in South Africa on 18 June 1951. Part of the legislation during the

apartheid era, the National Party introduced it to enforce racial

segregation, and was part of a deliberate process to remove all non-

white people from the voters' roll and revoke the Cape Qualified

Franchise system.

Bantu Education Act, 1953

 established an inferior education system for Africans based upon a

curriculum intended to produce manual laborers and obedient

subjects. Similar discriminatory education laws were also imposed on

Coloureds, who had lost the right to vote in 1956, and Indians.

Soweto uprising (1976) where 20,000 students took part to the

protest against the socio-political and educational system of the

National Party . Contain of 176 deaths and 1000 Injuries.

Modern SAE is part of a complex linguistic and cultural mix. The

Constitution of 1994 recognizes 11 official languages, namely English,

Afrikaans, and the nine major African languages (including isiZulu,

isiXhosa, seTswana and seSotho), as well as additional ‘community

and religious languages’ such as Khoi-San, Telegu, Hindi, Portuguese,

Hebrew, and Arabic.

Educational System in South Africa

The South African constitution states that everyone has the right to

basic education, as well as to adult education and secondary

education. Education in South Africa is compulsory for children

between 6 and 15 years of age (or up to grade 9, depending on which

is first attained). This obligation to attend school is secured in the

South African Schools Act 1996.

Education School/Level Grade Age Years Notes

s
Primary Primary 1-9 7- 9 Education is

School 15 compulsory

through grade 9
Secondary Secondary 10-12 14 3 National Senior

Education Certificate (NSC)

Exams taken

upon completion

of grade 12. The

NSC grants

access to higher

education.

Awarded since

2008.

Secondary Vocationary 11- 12 16 2

Secondary

Education
Post- National 1

Secondary Certificate
 Post- Higher 2

Secondary National

Certificate
Tertiary Bachelor's 3

(Arts and

Science)
Tertiary Bachelor's 1

Honors
Tertiary Bachelor's 4-6 Bachelor of

(Professional) Nursing Science

(4 years),

Bachelor of Laws

(4 years),

Bachelor of

Architecture (5

years) and the

Bachelor of

Veterinary

Science (6

years)
Tertiary 2

Master's
 Tertiary Doctorate 2-4

Education in South Africa consists of the following 3

components:

1. General Education and Training (GET): grade R up to and

including grade 9 comprise the compulsory school age years

(Grade R – the reception year – is not part of compulsory

schooling);

2. Further Education and Training (FET): grade 10 up to and

including grade 12 comprise further academic schooling, as well

as intermediate vocational education at technical colleges

community colleges and private colleges;

3. Higher Education and Training (HET).

South Africa has 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English,

IsiNdebele, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Northern Sotho, Sesotho, Setswana,

SiSwati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. Government policy regarding the

language of education states that Primary school pupils have the right

to be educated in the home language when admitted to school. This

home language must be one of the 11 official languages.

Department of Basic Education (DBE) – Primary and Secondary

School.

Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) – Tertiary

and Vocational Training

Grade R Subjects:

- Home language

- Mathematics

- Lifeskills

Grade 1-3 Subjects:

- Home language

- First additional language

- Mathematics

- Life skills

Grade 4-6 Subjects:

- Home language

- First additional language

- Mathematics
 - Life skills

- Natural Science and Technology

- Social Science: Geography

- Social Science: History

Grade 7 Subjects:

- Home language

- First additional language

- Mathematics

- Life skills

- Natural Science and

- Technology

- Social Science: Geography

- Social Science: History

- Economic & management Sciences

- Life Orientation

- Creative Arts
Grade 8 Subjects:

- Home language

- First additional language

- Mathematics

- Natural Science

- Social Science: Geography

- Social Science: History

- Economic & management Sciences

Grade 9 Subjects:

- Home language

- First additional language

- Mathematics

- Life Orientation

- Natural Science

- Social Science: Geography

- Social Science: History

 - Economic & management Sciences

Grade 10, 11 and 12 Subjects:

At least seven subjects must be taken.

Compulsory (Core Subjects)

1. English Home Language

2. Afrikaans First Additional Language or First Additional Language

3.  Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy

4.  Life Orientation which incorporates Religious Education

Electives (chose one from each row)

5. Physical Sciences / Business Studies / History

6. Life Sciences / Geography / Music / Engineering Graphics and

Design

7. Computer Applications Technology / Information Technology /

Life Sciences

References:

file:///D:/User/Downloads/education-system-south-africa%20(3).pdf

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/apartheid-and-reactions-it?

fbclid=IwAR2kMxyKpNyrSbdcKJl5cDQB8_yv9w-
fIHY4oL60eBtNPF545bAuBbwgC3Uhttps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popul

ation_Registration_Act,_1950

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_Representation_of_Voters_Act,

_1951\