M.A. / In terms of the new Constitution (Act 108 of 1996) South Africa has 11 official languages (RSA, 1996: 4). Because of past political imperatives, this de facto and constitutional multilingualism makes South Africa one of many countries experiencing language problems. Difficulties in the realm of language policy are therefore not unique to South Africa. To South Africans language is an emotional issue. Many believe that English, being a universally understandable language, should be the exclusive medium for communication. There is a great need to study language requirements and difficulties in multilingual hospitals (especially hospitals catering for the needs of people speaking African languages). The aim of this thesis is to study shortcomings and needs that may exist and to make recommendations for appropriate RDP intervention. The principle of multilingualism and of advancing the use of all official languages in South Africa is supported in this thesis. The main area of focus is therefore the identification of difficulties and the suggestion of remedies for these problems. To be able to make suggestions, it is necessary to identify the problems in health care. Because language planning is concerned with solutions to language-related problems, this study should be regarded as a language planning activity. To this end, the principles of language planning are discussed, with the focus on definitions of language planning, the types of language planning, the steps of language planning (mainly step 1, data accumulation), the responsibilities of the language planner and language planning already done in South Africa. An analysis of language needs will show that communication between physician and patient is unsuccessful in multilingual hospitals, because the parties involved do not understand each other's languages. To solve the problem, hospital staff and other individuals are being used as interpreters. However, this causes a multitude of difficulties, which are highlighted in the empirical study in chapter 4. The biggest problem in respect of interpreting is that the people who perform this function are not trained as interpreters. This leads to further problems, like misinterpreting as well as resistance to the fact that these people have to perform this function without remuneration. The opinions of hospital staff are reflected in the answers given to the questionnaires which they completed. These opinions are discussed in detail along with the problems referred to earlier as well as other problems identified. Because translation and interpreting are so closely related and because interpreting is the main focus of this thesis, a distinction between the two concepts is made. Criteria which interpreters must meet, as well as a literary overview concerning problems in health care with regard to interpreting, are addressed. From the information accumulated, suggestions are made in chapter 5 as to how these language problems might be solved. The most important suggestion to solve these problems in the field of interpreting is to make use of well-trained interpreters. A wide spectrum of aspects surrounding the training of interpreters is discussed and recommendations are made in chapter 5.