[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

27 May 2008

Speeding up change through multilingualism

Minister Sydney Mufamadi and Deputy Minister Nomatyala Hangana will on Tuesday, 3 June 2008 table the budget for Provincial and Local Government in Parliament. Parliamentarians will also have the opportunity to debate the budget.

On 4, 5, 6 June, the Department of Provincial and Local Government (dplg) will host an Intergovernmental Conference on Multilingualism and Capacity Building at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town. The conference aims to discuss and launch guidelines for implementing multilingualism in local government in support of the five year Local Government Strategic Agenda.

It will also launch the National Capacity Building Framework (NCBF) as a co-ordination mechanism. The conference which will be attended by mayors and municipal managers from all municipalities will also see the full participation of language practitioners and experts as well as academics from South Africa and abroad.

The dplg plans to support municipalities to build capacity for language facilitation in local government as part of the post conference implementation programme. It also plans to provide an overarching strategy for co-ordination and alignment of efforts by all stakeholders providing capacity building support to local government.

The dplg has partnered with a number of organisations with interest in implementing multilingualism in South Africa. These include the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), German Development Organisation (GTZ), Media Diversity and Development Agency (MDDA), and a number of research and academic institutions.

Issued by: Department of Provincial and Local Government
27 May 2008
Source: Department of Provincial and Local Government, (http://www.dplg.gov.za/)