South Africa will soon have 12 official languages. The National Assembly (NA) made the decision to amend the bill during a plenary meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

The decision made by the NA to include South African Sign Language (SASL) as an official language is to promote the rights of persons who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Until now, South Africa had 11 official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. The adoption of this constitutional amendment will bring that number to 12, once the President signs the Bill into law.

The amendment seeks to advance the cultural acceptance of the deaf culture, and highlight the rights of persons who are hard of hearing to equal protection and benefit of the law and human dignity. But one of the main goals is to promote inclusive equality and prevent unfair discrimination for persons living with a disability.

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Introducing the Bill

The Bill was introduced and referred to the Committee on 12 January 2023. The Committee was briefed by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development on the contents of the Bill on 27 January 2023.

In response to the call for public comment, the Committee received 58 written
submissions from individuals and organisations. The majority of the submissions were in support of the Bill.

There were opposing views expressed by a few commentators but the NA submit that this is an important step towards the realisation of the rights of persons who are deaf. SASL is not a universal language as different countries have their own sign language but the decision will promote and develop SASL so that various dialects are also recognised.

In terms of section 74(4) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, a
Bill that amends the Constitution may not include provisions other than constitutional
amendments and matters connected with the amendments. The Committee noted that the use of South African Sign Language is mentioned in legislation such as the Use of Official Languages Act 12 of 2012, the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996, and the Pan South African Language Board Act 59 of 1995.

The amendment was adopted without opposition in the National Assembly and official amendments will be made once President Cyril Ramaphosa signs the new Bill into law.