With Kiswahili being the first indigenous language to be introduced into South African schools next year, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) has welcomed the decision.
The introduction of the language was announced by Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, in Parliament during July.
PanSALB has accepted the declaration by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to adopt Kiswahili as its fourth official language of communication, in addition to English, Portuguese and French.
In a statement by PanSALB, it stated that, “This milestone achievement towards recognition and elevation of indigenous African languages across the SADC region forms part of the greater effort in ensuring development, usage and intellectualisation of our heritage languages.”
According to Dr David Maahlamela, chairperson of PanSALB, Kiswahili is an impeccable point of departure in safeguarding integrative multilingualism inclusive of indigenous language.
“Kiswahili is inevitably well-positioned to integrate the SADC region, thus we fully support this long overdue resolution. Kiswahili is one of the African Union’s official languages. It is also the official language of Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda with over 100 million speakers,” said Maahlamela.
He further said that across Africa, the idea persists that the international languages of wider communication (Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish) are the only means for upward economic mobility.
“South Africa as a member state has a huge responsibility ahead in ensuring that indigenous languages not only become communication languages, but also business languages in all sectors and environments,” said Maahlamela.
