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Minister Ngubane today announced the establishment of a Language Plan Task Group, to be known as LANGTAG. It has been appointed to advise the Minister who is responsible for language matters on devising a coherent National Language Plan for South Africa as a matter of urgency.

The Minister pointed out that Langtag is to be a policy advisory group to his Ministry (which is the Government's executive arm on language matters) and should in no way be confused with the Pan South African Language Board (Pansalb). Pansalb will be an independent statutory body which is to be appointed by the Senate in the new year in terms of the Pan South African Language Board Act (Act No. 59 of 1995) and will be expected to monitor the observance of the Constitutional provisions and principles relating to the use of languages, as well as the content and observance of any existing and new legislation, practice and policy dealing with language matters.

During the past months it has become clear that there is a definite tendency to unilingualism in our country. It has been argued that, although multilingualism is indeed a sociolinguistic reality in South Africa, it is invisible in the public service, in most public discourse and in the major mass media. It was also argued that the Government has failed to secure a significant position for language matters within the national development plan.

Consequently, despite the fact that our Constitution provides for the principle of multilingualism, there was still an urgent need for the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology to devise a coherent National Language Plan which not only addresses these issues, but also draws on the framework of the RDP and consequently maximises the utilisation of our multilingual country's human resources.

The need for such a Task Group is essential in the light of

(I) the lack of tolerance of language diversity and the resultant "multilingualism is a costly problem" approach evident in some sectors of our society weighed against the fundamental importance of language empowerment in our democratic society; and

(ii) the growing criticism from language stakeholders of the tendency to unilingualism in South Africa.
Minister Ngubane emphasised that a National Language Plan would have to be a statement of South Africa's language-related needs and priorities and that it should therefore set out to achieve at least the following goals
(I) All South Africans should have access to all spheres of South African society by developing and maintaining a level of spoken and written language which is appropriate for a range of contexts in the official language(s) of their choice.

(Ii) All South Africans should have access to the learning of languages other than their mother tongue.

(Iii) The African languages which have been marginalised by the linguicist policies of the past should be elaborated and maintained.

(Iv) Equitable and widespread language facilitation services should be established.

The following persons were appointed to the LANGTAG Main Committee
(I) Dr Neville Alexander, the Director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) at the University of Cape Town. Dr Alexander is a prominent and well-respected language planner who has worked extensively in this field. He is the author of several language planning publications.

(Ii) Ms Qedusizi Buthelezi, who teaches in the Department of Applied English Language Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. She was also a member of the Joint Conference Organising Committee which organised the national language conference in May last year, Towards a Pan South African Language Board.

(Iii) Ms Khethiwe Mboweni-Marais, a director of Afrophone, a translation and interpreting company specialising in the African languages. Ms Mboweni-Marais is a well respected translator who is also acknowledged as a competent interpreter.

(Iv) Prof. CT Msimang, who is the head of the Department of African Languages at Unisa. Prof. Msimang has written extensively on language planning matters concerning the African languages.

(V) Prof. AC Nkabinde, a well-known linguist who is currently the project leader of the Zulu Dictionary Project at the University of Zululand. Prof. Nkabinde is also the chairperson of the Language Subcommittee of the SABC Board.

(Vi) Dr Gerard Schuring, the Head of the Unit for African Languages at the HSRC. Dr Schuring is also a well-respected language planner who was recently involved in the formulation of a language policy for Gauteng.

(Vii) Prof. Victor Webb, of the Department of Afrikaans at the University of Pretoria. Prof. Webb is also a director of LiCCA (an international language planning research programme), the chairperson of the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa (LSSA) and the author of several publications on language planning.

(Viii) Dr Anne-Marie Beukes, of the State Language Services of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.

Dr Neville Alexander was elected chairperson of Langtag at its first meeting.

While admitting that there are many stumbling blocks in the implementation of a multilingual policy of which the negative attitudes to official multilingualism is arguably one of the crucial factors, Dr Ngubane said his Ministry was keen to join hands in the quest to eradicate the "multilingualism is a problem" approach which was so abundantly evident in the reasoning of some people in our country. This approach leads to unilingualism and the unacceptable subordination of marginalised groups under a dominant group which we can no longer tolerate in a democratic South Africa.

Because of the urgency of addressing this issue, the Minister requested that Langtag's report be submitted to him before the end of July 1996.

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