Mpumalanga Languages Act - New Bosses Annoucing their Arrival?

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, in preparation for the establishment of homelands, tens of thousands of Mapulana were forcefully relocated to Bushbuckridge. It was zoned by apartheid architects into what they called Mapulaneng. This zoning was done to irk Amashangaan who resided fifteen metres away in Gazankulu; in a region called Mhala which means ‘bushbuck’.

In 1972 Lebowa was founded as a bantustan for BaPedi. My family settled in 1973. The aim behind Lebowa was to erode all other Sotho groups in the Transvaal and manage them under one identity. Social-engineering tried to produce a homogenous bunch of niggers void of culture and diversity.

Based on the apartheid language policies it meant that every language once spoken and written by the ‘lesser humans’ was reduced to a dialect and no resources will be availed for its development. When this apartheid experiment was completed there was only nine indigenous languages left and tens of ‘dialects’. In Northern Sotho ‘a dialect’ is called ‘polelosemmotwana’ – or a language for a region.

Our democratic order had an opportunity to redress this setback; if not in 1994 probably twenty years later as part of restoring indigenous people’s rights.  Twenty years later our official language designation is structured along the nine bantustans plus English and Afrikaans. In this respect, nothing has changed as far as restoration of dignity is concerned. The wagon has not moved a single inch since 1994.

I was recently invited to a Mpumalanga Languages Act Awareness workshop. As a language activist the first anomality I picked on the Act was its designation of Siswati, isiNdebele, English and Afrikaans as the official languages of the province. This according to government means these are the only languages where state resources will be committed to promote, develop, protect and use in daily government communication.

In Bushbuckridge Local Municipality, a municipality in Mpumalanga, people speak Shangaan and Sepulana. My grandmother and thousands of others brutalised by apartheid’s Group Areas Act cannot read, speak or write any of the languages which are now going to be used by the Mpumalanga government to communicate with them. Siswati speakers are a minority in Bushbuckridge, no known isiNdebele speaker and probably less than 100 English and Afrikaans speakers.

To suddenly elevate the languages of minorities to those used in government communications, marketing, signage and branding is a recipe for ethnic conflict. It is a short-cut to reversing gains made in 1994 when bantustans were dissolved. People will not take it lying down and might start talking limited autonomy or secession.

I raised it with the house that the Act was not progressive, it was counter-development and did not reflect the population but power dynamics in the province. MaSwati, AmaNdebele, Afrikaners and English are in power and they want the Shangaan and Mapulana to feel it. It feels like the new bosses are announcing their arrival.

I explained to delegates from PanSALB that apartheid history was not taken into consideration while drafting the legislation.

In his presentation PanSALB Mpumalanga Chairperson Dr Thulani Mbuli said that Sepulana was a ‘community language’ which is ‘level seven’; one level away from becoming official. During question and answer I asked him what measures need to be undertaken to promote a language from being a community to official since I am itching to have Sepulana be the first reason to amend this archaic Mpumalanga Languages Act. I asked him; given that PanSALB only funds languages already declared official; how does government help in that process?

Dr Mbuli was honest that he had been asking the same questions for ages and the response he’s got is that there are no guidelines for a language to become official. Simply put, the eleven languages at the dinner table have tossed away the key and they don’t want anybody joining their sushi feast.

A PanSALBs advocate said there is a debate amongst linguists whether Sepulana is a language or a dialect. She said there was no consensus on that. So, these people who enjoy a seat at the dinner table have been given the power to decide on who should join them.

Truth is; research conducted by academics at Wits University largely supports the fact that Sepulana is a language while that conducted by academics at Limpopo usually supports the notion that it’s a dialect of Sepedi. However those who have been following the language debate will know that there is even a protest about why languages such as Khilobedu, Sexalaka etc are collectively called Sepedi while Sepedi is just one of them. What is this Sepedi that refuses to be an equal?

The argument by these Limpopo-based academics fails to explain the history of Mapulana prior to 1972. Wherever they were living they must have been speaking, reading and writing their distinct language. If they were speaking Sepedi they would not have been forcefully moved by simply absorbed into Lebowa. Sepulana only became a dialect in 1972; while Mapulana civilization has existed for thousands of years before that with their traditions, culture and traditional leadership which are so different from everyone else’s it’s like cheese and chalk.

In this sense the Mpumalanga Languages Act, which also fails to promote Shangaaan ‘because it’s already promoted in Limpopo’ is a backward Act which I doubt can withstand constitutional rigor. Its authors fail to know that Shangaaan is exclusively a Bushbuckridge language while Limpopo has Xitsonga. There’s nowhere where Shangaan is promoted and it’s only in Mpumalanga where such protection could be granted. And how do they justify English which is official in 58 countries and Afrikaans which is promoted in all nine provinces?

To both Mapulana and amaShangaan of Bushbuckridge and those Mapulana of Thaba-Chweu (Mphato, Hlabekisa, Matibidi etc) the Act is a fascist piece of legislation that did not warrant the quality of discussion it was afforded given that it’s a perpetuation of the apartheid legacy of divide and rule.

MPUMALANGA'S FINEST