1. Sepedi or Sesotho Sa Leboa: Presentation to the Joint Constitutional Review Committee Parliament, Cape Town, 13 November 2009

2. Board Members

3. INTRODUCTION Legislative Mandate Section 6. (5) of the Constitution enjoins the state to establish a Pan South African Language Board by national legislation to: (a)promote, and create conditions for, the development and use of- (i)all official languages (ii)the Khoi, Nama and San languages; and (iii) sign language; and

4. Intro… Section 2 of the Pansalb Act 59 of 1995 establishes the Pan South African Language Board to: (b)Promote and ensure respect of all South African official languages thus ensuring that they enjoy parity of esteem (c)promote and ensure respect for – (i)all languages commonly used by communities in South Africa, including German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu; and (ii)Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and other languages used for religious purposes in South Africa.

5. BACKGROUND Around 2000 complaint submitted to PanSALB re: Sepedi v Sesotho Sa Leboa Previous Board commissioned research and consultation on the subject Various findings submitted to the Board after the consultation and research Main finding was that Sepedi is a dialect of Sesotho Sa Leboa.

6. AFTERMATH Joint presentation of CRL commission and PanSALB submitted to this committee Its recommendations were that Sepedi be replaced by Sesotho Sa Leboa This committee should engage the affected communities

7. Cont… PanSALB renamed Sepedi structures (NLB & NLU) as Sesotho Sa Leboa. Complaint was received by the present Board challenging the validity of the research findings and the renaming. Board reflected on the matter and concluded that it should not have expressed an opinion on the matter Neither should it have renamed its structures prior to a constitutional amendment

8. Cont… PanSALB enjoined by its mandate to be impartial on these matters and should be guided by the constitution as to official languages to promote The joint submission by PanSALB and CRL compromised both institutions

9. Cont… Whilst PanSALB does not wish to express opinion on the matter regard should be had as how Sepedi came to be recognised as official language in the final constitution while it was not in the interim constitution

10. Conclusion Constitution review committee to do: –Broader consultation as required by the law and commission further research on the matter –Consultation with other stakeholders Research commissioned by PanSALB and CRL should be used as a resource

11. THANK YOU!