My Easter weekend was seriously ruined by the Heads of the court, when I read from the article that they decided to re-anglicise the Justice system of our Democratic South Africa. I thought ukuhlanya-ke kodwa lokhu (utter craziness)!
Seriously, now why must people sit and deliberate and decide to recolonise us. This is clearly the subversion of the blood of Solomon Mahlangu. If people cannot access the justice system in their languages why don’t we just strip these languages the official status and make English the only official language? I am failing to understand the logic behind this decision, it is clearly not people-centred. People use their languages in courts for a fair trial because the constitution of the republic says just that. It grants one the opportunity to be tried in your language.
These judges are crippled and as I have always maintained that the anglicised Education system is dangerous for it takes away knowledge of your own language. They also find it difficult to read and understand intelligent information in indigenous languages. Such happens when you were schooled in English, your indigenous language becomes a colloquial code and it cannot be considered a language of intelligence, it is seen as a language that cannot convey logical thoughts. So the judges are being selfish, they are halting means to develop the languages of the soil and making space for such in the judicial system but continue to cheer and clap for the language of the Queen, all because they are competent English readers and incompetent in African tongues!
There are multitudes in the Republic that do not understand the Language of the colonisers who will be disadvantaged if we continue with this crazy decision! In February 21 the International Mother Tongue Day I went to the Ntuzuma Court to file a case against two big insurance companies who refused to write to me in isiZulu, I asked for the forms that I was supposed to fill in isiZulu, the court said they do not have them in isiZulu. So these judges are not starting anew, it is what has been happening all these years. People of the land are being treated like foreigners in the Republic. They have to use interpreters. French people use interpreters for they are from France, so does the Japanese, Italians etc. likewise the Zulus, Sothos and Vendas also use interpreters. They are not from this country hey? The only people who use their language are the descendants of the colonisers….yes, can you believe it? The children of the white population in this country do not have to be dehumanised by the side-lining of their language, they access economic, political and academic information in their tongues, it feels the same being in South Africa and Britain.
They have written forms, they need no interpreter for the system is pro-them! Now to put salt to injury these judges went on to decide that multilingualism must be thrown out of the window and we must follow the master! I say it is neo-colonisation. It is institutionalised discrimination. People are meant to access information in their tongues, whether it is written information or spoken words.
The court must not force the judges and other legal practitioners to write in the languages preferred by the individuals instead it must have an office where translation of judgements in other languages happen to all eleven languages. In that way all judgements will be accessible to everyone. This is not England and thus English cannot throw out isiZulu which is spoken by 22% of the population. It then makes one wonder if their judgements on linguistic issues are objective. If your world is anglicised I am sure you face difficulties in imagining the world without English. The judges are caught in the same, they do not foresee a legal practitioner who does not use English, in the next 20 years there could be a school that teaches in mother tongue and a university that complements that, are the professional who graduated there included in this rubbish plan of the judges?
These judges are really urinating over the graves of Mandela, Sobukwe, Biko and Solomon Mahlangu! Bathundela amangcwaba dadewethu kababa! Jonas Gwangwa says “feedom for some is freedom for none!” So Lenna I think this is nonsense, PanSALB and the Commission for Cultural Religious and Linguistic groups must act on this. Otherwise ke tla nnka chelate ya bana baka, ngiyomangalela amajaji. Ngithi Khaliyoni Mogoeng Khaliyoni man.