Language rights, intercultural communication and the law in South Africa

Kaschula, Russell H; Ralarala, Monwabisi K

Title: Language rights, intercultural communication and the law in South Africa
Creator: Kaschula, Russell H, Ralarala, Monwabisi K
Subject: Language policy -- South Africa
Subject: Courts interpreting and translating -- South Africa
Subject: Intercultural communication -- South Africa
Subject: Conduct of court proceedings -- South Africa
Subject: Linguistic rights -- South Africa
Subject: Multilingualism -- South Africa
Date: 2004
Type: article
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59434
Identifier: vital:27602
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1080/02572117.2004.10587242
Description: This article seeks to explore the present language scenario in courts of law. The article makes use of section 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), as a point of departure. At face value this section seems to entrench the language rights of individuals. This would mean that individuals could request trials to be held in their mother tongues, with fluent and competent speakers of that mother tongue sitting on the bench. However, this has not materialised. Contrary to popular opinion, the article argues that individual language rights are to some extent entrenched in the Constitution, but there are no mechanisms to secure such rights in the public domain. The article argues that it is often only language privileges that are preserved in institutions such as the justice system. Legally speaking, there is an obligation on the State to provide interpreters to facilitate access to all eleven official languages in courts of law. This in itself presents numerous challenges. The article argues further that the corollary to this is that there is very little space for intercultural communication in courts of law (as defined by Ting-Toomey, 1999, and Gibson, 2002). There has been little or no capacity building in this regard. It is English, to some extent Afrikaans, and the western cultural paradigm, which prevails. The result is further communication breakdown and language intolerance. In this article, the notion of language rights in courts of law is explored against the backdrop of existing theories of intercultural communication.
Format: 11 pages, pdf
Language: English
Relation: South African Journal of African Languages, Kaschula, R.H. and Ralarala, M.K., 2004. Language rights, intercultural communication and the law in South Africa. South African Journal of African Languages, 24(4), pp.252-261, South African Journal of African Languages 24 vol. 4 no. 252 261 2004 2305-1159
Rights: Taylor & Francis
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.)

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Kaschula, Russell H (Prof)

RU School of Languages and Literatures

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